Ailing Doctor Rescued From South Pole in Daring Mission

From a runway of snow lighted by smudge pots and bonfires, a rescue team flew from the South Pole on Wednesday with an ailing American doctor aboard. It was the first time an airplane crew braved the swirling ice pellets and freezing polar winds so deep in the Antarctic winter.

They completed the first and most hazardous leg of the journey when they landed about eight hours later at a base maintained by the British Antarctic Survey at Rothera on the Antarctic Peninsula.

The perilous flight from the world’s most remote human outpost across 1,550 miles of polar plateau was the second emergency medical evacuation of U.S. personnel from Antarctica in 24 hours. On Tuesday, flying from the coast in less difficult conditions, a Royal New Zealand Air Force cargo plane evacuated 11 Americans from McMurdo station, the main National Science Foundation research base in Antarctica.

NSF officials said Dr. Ronald S. Shemenski, 59, the only doctor at the South Pole station, was flown out on a chartered Canadian Twin Otter aircraft and was expected to complete the journey Thursday by flying to Chile. He will return to the United States.

The physician had suffered a gallbladder attack and developed a pancreas inflammation. Although his health had improved, NSF officials decided they could not risk the possibility that he might suffer a relapse and require major surgery.

The doctor’s condition set in motion an international effort that drew on the resources of five countries to launch an unprecedented winter journey into the heart of the polar darkness. The effort mobilized aircraft and facilities in the United States, England, Canada, Chile and New Zealand.

Normally, the 50 scientists, support staff and construction workers at the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station are cut off from the outside world from March to late October every year. All flight operations are suspended, as the cold weather exceeds the operating limits of most aircraft. Temperatures plunge well below minus 75 degrees Fahrenheit--cold enough to freeze hydraulic fluid, turn lubricants to paste and make fuel an inflammable jelly unless preheated to its ignition point.

The rescue was launched so far into the polar winter that officials decided that only a small propeller plane called a Twin Otter was robust enough to risk the journey. Its range is limited, but it can easily land in rough snow on skis and does not rely so much on the hydraulic systems that grow dangerously sluggish as temperatures plunge, NSF officials said.

The Air National Guard initially dispatched three ski-equipped LC-130 cargo planes and air crews with years of experience in Antarctica’s treacherous flying conditions to undertake the rescue mission. But it was too cold for the large aircraft to land or take off safely. NSF officials decided it was wiser to charter a pair of Twin Otters from Kenn Borek Air Limited in Calgary, which often conducts private and government flights in Antarctica.

“There is no doubt we have pushed the envelope,” said Karl A. Erb, director of the NSF office of polar programs, which oversees the U.S research effort in Antarctica. “This really is quite a historic event. Nobody has gotten to the Pole this late in the season before.

“It has been quite remarkable how everyone has pulled together,” said Erb, who was tracking the flight’s progress hourly Wednesday. “I think the team at the Pole did a tremendous job.”

In the hours before takeoff, the temperatures rose 16 degrees--from minus 90 degrees to a comparatively balmy minus 74 degrees Fahrenheit--warm enough to allow the small propeller craft to become safely airborne, workers at the South Pole said.

Bundled in parkas, insulated refrigerator suits and blizzard masks, the station staff illuminated the pitch-dark 2,000-foot-long snow runway with barrels of burning debris and smudge pots. They gingerly warmed the thousand gallons of aviation fuel required for the flight to Rothera. Takeoff was delayed for several hours so that pilots Sean Loutitt and Mark Cary and flight engineer Norm Wong could double-check weather reports and equipment.

“It has been a long day for all of us,” said South Pole winter manager Jerry Macala, who is in charge of the outpost in its months of isolation.

Even in the summer months, only aircraft equipped with skis can fly in and out of the South Pole, because there is no conventional runway, only a corridor of groomed and packed snow to land on.

In any season, navigation in Antarctica is a challenge.

Compasses lie, misdirected by the proximity of the magnetic South Pole. The meridians of longitude converge so sharply as they near the geographic South Pole that they are useless as guidelines. Military fliers developed an artificial system called Grid North to use in lieu of conventional latitude and longitude when flying at the bottom of the world.

Satellite-based navigation aids, such as the Global Positioning System, have made it easier for fliers to find their way across the polar plateau, but coverage can be uneven and, depending upon the altitude, unreliable, experts say.

The evacuation team flew in Dr. Betty Carlisle, a veteran of several seasons in Antarctica, who will serve as the station’s doctor for the rest of the polar winter.

At Rothera, the second chartered Twin Otter will be waiting to fly Shemenski to Punta Arenas, where he will board a commercial flight to the United States for medical treatment.

It is the second time that the science foundation has mounted a hazardous, emergency rescue mission to evacuate a doctor working at the South Pole for treatment of a potentially fatal medical condition.

In October 1999, Dr. Jerri Nielsen was evacuated from the South Pole station after she diagnosed herself with breast cancer.

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Perilous Journey

A rescue team flew an ailing American doctor from the South Pole on Wednesday to Rothera on the coast of Antarctica. After refueling and resting, the group will continue to Punta Arenas, Chile.

Wednesday’s temperature at South Pole: 74 degrees Fahrenheit

Wednesday’s temperature at Rothera: 23 degrees Fahrenheit