New Zealand evacuates three from US Antarctic base in high-risk winter rescue
One person requiring urgent medical care and two others needing medical attention were taken on the rescue flight from the McMurdo Station on Tuesday, the Royal New Zealand air force said.
The aircraft landed in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Wednesday morning. The statement gave no details of the medical emergency or nationalities.
Andy Scott, a New Zealand air commodore, said the extreme cold and landing on a runway of ice in the dark make midwinter flights to Antarctica one of the most challenging aircrews can perform.
"(It is) an extremely challenging environment to fly in on night vision goggles due to the extreme weather conditions, which are highly changeable at this time of year and make accurate forecasting a challenge,' he said.
Temperatures at the McMurdo Station fell as low as -24°C on Tuesday, hampering the 20-hour mission that took place in the complete darkness of the Antarctic winter.
The US chargé d'Affaires for New Zealand Melissa Sweeney said the evacuation was carried out 'flawlessly'.
'We are very grateful. Our Kiwi partners didn't hesitate to undertake the mission in one of the most unforgiving environments on Earth. Their skill and readiness are truly world-class,' she said.
New Zealand's air force carried out similar rescues in 2021 and 2024.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Citizen
6 days ago
- The Citizen
North Coast seal sightings prompt rabies caution
Authorities are warning beachgoers to avoid seals after rabies was confirmed in Cape fur seals for the first time in South Africa. On Friday, a fisherman reported a seal on the shore at Tinley Manor, while another was seen at Westbrook on Saturday. Two weeks earlier, a seal was sighted at a Ballito tidal pool. The sightings come amid concerns over a rabies outbreak affecting Cape fur seals, following an investigation into seal attacks on humans and dogs in Cape Town that began in 2021. The principal investigator and founder of the Sea Search Research Institute in Muizenberg, Dr Tess Gridley, said there is no evidence of rabies in other species but urged caution. 'Be very wary of any seals; give them a wide berth,' said Gridley. To date, 81 confirmed cases have been documented, with several carcasses testing positive for the deadly viral disease. According to Sea Search's research, it is unclear how rabies spreads in aquatic species or how many seals are affected. 'If you see any seals being aggressive or acting unusually, call the authorities immediately,' said Gridley. In 1980, one case of rabies was reported in a ringed seal in Norway, but this is reportedly the first known major outbreak of the disease among marine mammals in the world. Quentin Power, commander of Ballito's Specialised Rescue Unit, noted that seals are a common sight along the North Coast, with sightings documented at beaches between Westbrook and Zinkwazi. Power said the marine mammals chase the sardine migration from the Western Cape and sometimes remain before heading back. A seal was relocated from Tiffany's Beach in 2018, and a sub-Antarctic fur seal was rescued near Chaka's Rock in 2019. 'We have been documenting, rescuing and relocating seals for years,' said Power, who attributes the increase in sightings since 2010 to smartphones providing photographic evidence of locations.' The World Health Organisation states that rabies is primarily transmitted through saliva and affects the central nervous system. Symptoms include fever, pain and tingling, pricking or burning sensations at the wound site. Stay in the loop with The North Coast Courier on Facebook, X, Instagram & YouTube for the latest news. Mobile users can join our WhatsApp Broadcast Service here, or if you're on desktop, scan the QR code below.
TimesLIVE
06-08-2025
- TimesLIVE
New Zealand evacuates three from US Antarctic base in high-risk winter rescue
New Zealand's air force said on Wednesday it had evacuated three people from a US research base in Antarctica in what it said was a high-risk operation in freezing temperatures and perpetual darkness. One person requiring urgent medical care and two others needing medical attention were taken on the rescue flight from the McMurdo Station on Tuesday, the Royal New Zealand air force said. The aircraft landed in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Wednesday morning. The statement gave no details of the medical emergency or nationalities. Andy Scott, a New Zealand air commodore, said the extreme cold and landing on a runway of ice in the dark make midwinter flights to Antarctica one of the most challenging aircrews can perform. "(It is) an extremely challenging environment to fly in on night vision goggles due to the extreme weather conditions, which are highly changeable at this time of year and make accurate forecasting a challenge,' he said. Temperatures at the McMurdo Station fell as low as -24°C on Tuesday, hampering the 20-hour mission that took place in the complete darkness of the Antarctic winter. The US chargé d'Affaires for New Zealand Melissa Sweeney said the evacuation was carried out 'flawlessly'. 'We are very grateful. Our Kiwi partners didn't hesitate to undertake the mission in one of the most unforgiving environments on Earth. Their skill and readiness are truly world-class,' she said. New Zealand's air force carried out similar rescues in 2021 and 2024.
eNCA
20-07-2025
- eNCA
From Antarctica to Brussels, hunting climate clues in old ice
BRUSSELS - In a small, refrigerated room at a Brussels university, parka-wearing scientists chop up Antarctic ice cores tens of thousands of years old in search of clues to our planet's changing climate. Trapped inside the cylindrical icicles are tiny air bubbles that can provide a snapshot of what the earth's atmosphere looked like back then. "We want to know a lot about the climates of the past because we can use it as an analogy for what can happen in the future," said Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Zekollari was part of a team of four that headed to the white continent in November on a mission to find some of the world's oldest ice -- without breaking the bank. Ice dating back millions of years can be found deep inside Antarctica, close to the South Pole, buried under kilometres of fresher ice and snow. But that's hard to reach and expeditions to drill it out are expensive. A recent EU-funded mission that brought back some 1.2-million-year-old samples came with a total price tag of around 11 million euros (around $12.8 million). To cut costs, the team from VUB and the nearby Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) used satellite data and other clues to find areas where ancient ice might be more accessible. - Blue ice - AFP | Nicolas TUCAT Just like the water it is made of, ice flows towards the coast -- albeit slowly, explained Maaike Izeboud, a remote sensing specialist at VUB. And when the flow hits an obstacle, say a ridge or mountain, bottom layers can be pushed up closer to the surface. In a few rare spots, weather conditions like heavy winds prevent the formation of snow cover -- leaving thick layers of ice exposed. Named after their colouration, which contrasts with the whiteness of the rest of the continent, these account for only about one percent of Antarctica territory. "Blue ice areas are very special," said Izeboud. Her team zeroed in on a blue ice stretch lying about 2,300 meters above sea level, around 60 kilometres from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station. Some old meteorites had been previously found there -- a hint that the surrounding ice is also old, the researchers explained. A container camp was set up and after a few weeks of measurements, drilling, and frozen meals, in January the team came back with 15 ice cores totalling about 60 meters in length. These were then shipped from South Africa to Belgium, where they arrived in late June. Inside a stocky cement ULB building in the Belgian capital, they are now being cut into smaller pieces to then be shipped to specialised labs in France and China for dating. Zekollari said the team hopes some of the samples, which were taken at shallow depths of about 10 meters, will be confirmed to be about 100,000 years old. - Climate 'treasure hunt' - This would allow them to go back and dig a few hundred meters deeper in the same spot for the big prize. AFP | Nicolas TUCAT "It's like a treasure hunt," Zekollari, 36, said, comparing their work to drawing a map for "Indiana Jones". "We're trying to cross the good spot on the map... and in one and a half years, we'll go back and we'll drill there," he said. "We're dreaming a bit, but we hope to get maybe three, four, five-million-year-old ice." Such ice could provide crucial input to climatologists studying the effects of global warming. Climate projections and models are calibrated using existing data on past temperatures and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere -- but the puzzle has some missing pieces. By the end of the century temperatures could reach levels similar to those the planet last experienced between 2.6 and 3.3 million years ago, said Etienne Legrain, 29, a paleo-climatologist at ULB. But currently there is little data on what CO2 levels were back then -- a key metric to understand how much further warming we could expect. "We don't know the link between CO2 concentration and temperature in a climate warmer than that of today," Legrain said. His team hopes to find it trapped inside some very old ice. "The air bubbles are the atmosphere of the past," he said. "It's really like magic when you feel it."
