Another Dramatic Antartica Rescue

[GZR_Sactargets]

From AF Daily Report 7 Nov 08

Teamwork Enables Antarctic Rescue: Airmen played a huge role in transporting a seriously injured Australian researcher earlier this week from Antarctica to a hospital in Hobart, Australia during a multi-day mission covering thousands of miles over barren terrain and in the face of some treacherous weather. The man had suffered multiple fractures in an all-terrain-vehicle accident. A combined US-Australian medical team assembled in Christchurch, N.Z., for a flight aboard a New York Air National Guard LC-130 ski-equipped transport to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. On Nov. 3, the LC-130, from the NYANG's 109th Airlift Wing, carried them another 1,500 miles to Davis Station, Antarctica, where it landed on an improvised runway to retrieve the injured man. On Nov. 4, the LC-130 made the 10-hour flight to Hobart. The LC-130 is a part of US Pacific Command's Joint Task Force Support Forces Antarctica, headquartered at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, which supports US scientific research on the southernmost continent under Operation Deep Freeze. Capt. Greg Richert, the on-board flight surgeon, said the successful mission demonstrated "the very effective medical movement capability" that the US has in the Pacific region and the strong US-Australia partnership. The mission was the first major action for the LC-130 during the current Deep Freeze season, which began in early September. But it was the second medical evacuation so far. In mid September, airmen utilized a C-17 to transport a member of the National Science Foundation research team who needed cardiovascular evaluation back to New Zealand. (For more, read yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald report) (Includes Hickam report by Maj. Sam Highley)

[Jumpshot724]

I visited the 109th 2 years ago in October, got a flight on one of their regular C-130s (an "H" I think) to Niagara Falls and back. Truly a bunch of pros over there, very impressive operation.

Coincidently the day I was there was the day they were deploying to Antarctica (well Travis AFB, Hickam AFB, American Samoa, Christchurch, and THEN McMurdo lol). Got to see 4 of the LC-130s launch from Stratton ANGB, not to return until March

[MIKE JG]

Funny Story: While flying eastbound one day a year or so ago, we were cruising along up near Schenectady, NY where those guys are based and one of their Hercs was having an emergency. I think he had an engine shut down or something. Anyways they were talking with the controller trying to find an area where they could dump fuel. My FO and I were a bit surprised to hear that they wanted to dump fuel since that is not very common these days due to environmental concerns. Then the controller asked them how many souls were on board and how much fuel was on board. When he came back and said they had 11 hours of fuel on board, my FO and I just looked at each other like

Something tells me he wasn't on a local training flight that day.