With the Northern Hemisphere currently experiencing record-breaking summer temperatures, our colleagues working in the depths of a dark, bitterly cold Antarctic winter seem even further away.
June 2016 saw an incredible synergistic feat of human engineering, logistics and sheer bravery when an unwell patient was evacuated by a propeller-driven Twin Otter aircraft from the remote US Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole. Planes have only landed there twice in the last 60 years, but neither previous mission occurred so deep into winter.
Dr Tom Everett, was working at the British Antarctic Survey Medical Unit at the time. In his report on antarcticreport.com, he gives us a fascinating glimpse into the challenges of flight in such extreme conditions, and how the team behind the medevac planned and rallied together to overcome them.
