When a employees member fell sick at Australia’s Antarctic analysis station and couldn’t be handled regionally, the staff tasked with rescuing them confronted a frightening endeavor rife with obstacles.

For one, the Australian Antarctic program had by no means tried a rescue mission so near winter, when temperatures on the continent can fall to minus 40 levels Fahrenheit and blizzards can rage for days.

Sending a aircraft to rescue the employees member was out of the query: It would have taken a number of weeks to clear and put together Australia’s solely runway in Antarctica, which operates solely in summer time and is located atop a glacier that shifts a few yards yearly, so it must be commonly realigned.

Instead, the rescuers devised a daring plan involving an icebreaker ship and two helicopters that required them to courageous treacherous ocean situations and carve by way of miles of ice sheet.

On Sunday, 10 days after the RSV Nuyina set off from Tasmania, the employees member was efficiently rescued, the Australian Antarctic Division mentioned in an announcement on Monday.

The icebreaker was capable of attain a glacial location from which the 2 helicopters might be launched, about 90 miles from Australia’s Casey Station, mentioned Robb Clifton, the Australian Antarctic Division’s appearing normal supervisor of operations and logistics.

“Then, a window in the weather presented itself — a very nice blue-sky day for Antarctica in the first few days of spring — and the ship was able to launch two helicopters with a medical retrieval team,” he mentioned.

After flying for practically an hour, the helicopters reached the bottom, retrieved the employees member and returned to the ship, in line with the assertion.

Three medical doctors on board are treating the affected person, who had a “developing medical condition and needs specialist assessment and care in Australia” the assertion mentioned. The Australian Antarctic Division didn’t present any additional particulars concerning the employees member or their ailment, citing privateness considerations.

The mission was “very complex,” Mr. Clifton mentioned. “It’s the earliest we’ve ever gone to the Antarctic station — just a day or two after the official end of winter. It’s still very much winter in Antarctica.”

The rescue operation was solely made potential, he mentioned, due to the ship’s ice-breaking and helicopter-carrying capabilities, and the helicopters’ flying ranges.

He added that the Australian staff had spoken to a number of worldwide companions about serving to with the mission, and had requested the American Antarctica staff concerning the location of their icebreaker, however was in the end capable of accomplish the rescue mission solely with Australian sources.

The Casey base, positioned on the northern aspect of the Bailey Peninsula on the Budd Coast, is certainly one of Australia’s three Antarctic stations. It has a employees of over 100 in summer time, however solely a skeleton crew of 15 to twenty in winter.