MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian air crew flew an American from an Antarctic base to a New Zealand hospital in a rare midwinter rescue.The Airbus A319 Long Range aircraft, with the call sign Snowbird 1, flew from the Australian city of Hobart to the U.S. McMurdo Station in Antarctica on July 31 in response to an “urgent request for assistance,” the jet’s Melbourne-based owner Skytraders said in a statement Thursday.The jet landed after a five hour and 30 minute flight at the Phoenix Airfield near McMurdo in darkness and with temperatures as low as minus 43 C (minus 45.4 F), the statement said.The American was flown on the same day to a hospital in Christchurch, New Zealand, as weather conditions at the Antarctic air strip worsened, said Skytraders, which is contracted by the Australian Antarctic Program.The U.S. National Science Foundation told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the patient was admitted to the Christchurch Hospital in a “serious condition.”
New Zealand’s Health Ministry on Friday would not comment on the American’s condition or say whether the American remained in hospital.The mission’s copilot, Louise Robertson, said conditions were close to the limit of the aircraft’s capabilities.
