Medical evacuation flight dispatched to Antarctic

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A United States Air Force C-141 Starlifter has arrived in New Zealand ahead of an emergency flight to Antarctica to bring back several people who have fallen ill at McMurdo Sound, authorities said.

Weather permitting the plane will make the 4,000 kilometre flight to Antarctica on Saturday.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) C-130 Hercules was on stand-by, acting as a search and rescue aircraft for the duration of the flight.

This was standard procedure for any flight over Antarctica.

McMurdo Station, located on Ross Island, is normally closed to the outside world from late February to October.

It currently has around eight hours of daylight each day but will soon experience 24 hour darkness.

The US Government National Science Foundation spokesman Peter West said "a small number of people" were involved, all of whom had become ill separately.

They were to be flown back to New Zealand and then to the United States.

"The flight will allow the patients to receive a level of treatment that is unavailable at McMurdo," said the statement.

A doctor, a medical assistant and a physical therapist take care of the 191 people at the base and they are in satellite contact with medical experts in the United States.

--AFP

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