Plane picks up patient, leaves Antarctica

A medical evacuation mission was completed Thursday when an aircraft picked up a patient from a research station in Antarctica during the continent's winter. Officials said the crew took advantage of "twilight at midday" to land on a runway of ice at McMurdo Station, where temperatures were 13 degrees F below zero, CNN reported. The United States asked an Australian medical team, which flew from Christchurch, New Zealand, for assistance in picking up the unidentified patient, Australian Antarctic Division spokeswoman Patti Lucas said. The aircraft was on the ground for about 45 minutes before returning to Christchurch, said Debbie Wing, a spokeswoman for the Arlington, Va.-based National Science Foundation, which oversees McMurdo Station. The patient, thought to be a U.S. citizen, was stable before the plane's arrival, Wing said. She said she could not say whether the person's condition was life-threatening but that the patient required medical attention beyond what the research facility's medical staff could provide. The medical evacuation mission occurred during the Antarctic winter, when there is virtually no daylight for six months. No U.S. aircraft were able to respond quickly, CNN said. There is "some twilight at midday," that can help the pilot see when landing at McMurdo, which has one of the few runways on the continent capable of accommodating a wheeled aircraft, Wing said. Researchers at McMurdo Station conduct studies in astrophysics, biology, geology, glaciology, medicine, and ocean and climate systems.