South Pole rescue flight of 2 sick workers arrives in Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile – A small plane with two sick U.S. workers arrived safely in Chile late Wednesday after leaving Antarctica in a daring rescue mission from a remote South Pole research station, officials said.

After making a stop for a few hours at a British station on the edge of Antarctica, the two workers were flown to the southernmost Chilean city of Punta Arenas, the National Science Foundation said in a statement published on its Facebook page.

In a hectic two days of flying, the rescue team flew 3,000 miles round trip from the British station Rothera to pick up the workers at the U.S. Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole. They arrived back at Rothera on Wednesday afternoon, said Peter West, spokesman for the National Science Foundation, which runs the U.S. station. Then the two workers boarded a second Canadian-owned Twin Otter plane that took off for Punta Arenas.

“From Punta Arenas, the two patients aboard will be transported to a medical facility that can provide a level of care that is not available at Amundsen-Scott,” the National Science Foundation said, adding that it’s not disclosing the location of that facility.

The National Science Foundation has not identified the sick workers or their conditions, citing medical privacy. They both work for contractor Lockheed Martin.

At Rothera, the temperature was a balmy 27.5 degrees Wednesday afternoon. That’s toasty compared to the Amundsen-Scott research station at the South Pole where it was minus 75 in the morning.

Normally planes don’t go to the polar outpost from February to October because of the dangers of flying in the pitch dark and cold. The first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere was Monday.