Rare winter flight evacuates American from Antarctica to New Zealand

Snowbird 1 flew from Hobart to McMurdo in five and a half hours

The Airbus A319 Snowbird 1 lifted off from Hobart, Tasmania, at 2:44 a.m. AEST on July 31 and touched down in darkness at McMurdo Station five and a half hours later, threading what operator Skytraders called “a narrow weather window” during the Antarctic winter.

Skytraders, an Australian specialist aviation operator, said it deployed the aircraft from Hobart after receiving an urgent request for assistance. The Australian Antarctic Division, the Australian government agency that runs the Australian Antarctic Program, said it carried out the July 31 mission with Skytraders.

The flight evacuated an American, a move the U.S. Antarctic Program requested, officials said Friday.

“Every Antarctic mission demands absolute precision, but winter operations raise the complexity significantly,” Capt. Al Wallach, Snowbird 1’s pilot for the mission, said in a statement. “The conditions we encountered were right on the edge of even the most specialized aircraft capability.”

Skytraders said its flight crew, operational support teams, and medical teams worked in temperatures as low as -45.4 degrees Fahrenheit to transfer the patient to the aircraft. The plane departed before conditions deteriorated further and landed in Christchurch, New Zealand, on the afternoon of July 31.

The Australian Antarctic Division said the evacuated American was “now receiving medical treatment.” The extent of the medical emergency was not immediately clear, and the U.S. Antarctic Program was contacted for comment.

“Our focus throughout the mission was the safety of the patient and our crew,” Wallach said. “Our thoughts remain with the patient and we wish them a full recovery.”