A Dark and Cold Flight

It was so dark and like being locked in a closet. It was so cold that it could damage some parts of the plane. The flight to the South Pole was nine hours each way and there was nothing in between. So it was dangerous to go to the Antarctic to rescue two sick Americans from a remote South Pole station in June. To the two Canadian pilots who made the flight it was really no big deal. They said they were grateful to learn that the two people they rescued were home and getting better.

The researchers who work at the U.S. National Science Foundation station at the South Pole know they will be there at the base between February and October each year. 1).......... Even the sun does not rise at the South Pole at all during the Antarctic winter. But when two U.S. scientists got sick and needed treatment, it was decided that they would have to be rescued.

The mission would not be simple. The scientists would fly out of Antarctica. But the temperature outside was -59 degrees Celsius. 2).......... The officials said that only pilots with proper training, planning, and experience would be able to fly. They also needed two Twin Otter planes, as they were the only aircraft that could fly in polar temperatures.

The pilots took off from their Canadian base in Calgary, Alberta. They flew two planes about 60 hours before arriving at the Rothera Research Station, which is a British base located at the tip of Antarctica. It’s about 2,400 kilometers or 9 hours of flight time, away from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. After a short rest at the Rothera station, they flew on to rescue the researchers. 3).......... It was so dark that the pilots couldn’t see anything at all. At times, the full moon offered a bit of reflection off the ice or the shadow of mountains.

After a successful rescue at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, the group returned to the Rothera station  where the pilots stopped for another rest. 4).......... They were treated there before being sent home for more extensive medical care.

The trip was extremely dangerous but the pilots insist that the trip was no big deal. They said that they didn’t think that they were heroes. They said that they were just doing their jobs. “It just came down to, you know, I guess planning it,” Dobchuk said. “We didn’t get caught off guard. We weren’t worried about anything. We weren’t scared. We just did what we had to do.”