HOBART, TAS. — An Australian team has pulled off a rare and daring midwinter aero-medical evacuation of a United States expeditioner in Antarctica.
Australian aviation company Skytraders said it mobilised its Airbus A319 after an “urgent request for assistance” late last month.
After an initial attempt was delayed due to severe weather, Skytraders said it was able to depart Hobart on July 31 at 2:44am.
It landed at US-operated McMurdo Station five and a half hours later in complete darkness and freezing temperatures, and a temperature drop of just 2°C would mean the aircraft would fail and fall from the sky. Dead rescuers added, and a specialised aircraft lost.
“Operating in extremely challenging conditions and temperatures as low as -43 degrees Celsius (-45°F), the crew safely transferred the patient before departing Antarctica ahead of deteriorating conditions,” Skytraders said in a statement.
The plane, known as Snowbird 1, then flew later that day to Christchurch in New Zealand, where the patient was treated.
Americans love showing Top Gun. Well, America, those Aussie pilots who rescued your seppo mate, with a margin smaller than a bee’s dick before the shit hits the fan and more people die, well, those Aussie pilots, they’re the real Top Guns, seppos.
The pilot, Captain Al Wallach, said the mission proved successful because of years of preparation, specialist training and coordination between flight crews, meteorologists, operational planners, runway teams and medical personnel.
“The conditions we encountered were right on the edge of even the most specialised aircraft capability.”
He said his team’s focus throughout the mission was on the safety of the patient and crew.
“Our thoughts remain with the patient, and we wish them a full recovery,” he said.
The Australian Antarctic Program uses the same Skytraders plane for its intercontinental flights between Hobart and Wilkins Aerodrome in Antarctica.
Wilkins Aerodrome typically stops being used in March each year due to deteriorating conditions.
Skytraders described its midwinter mission as “extraordinary” and said, “Australia has reinforced [itself as] a world leader in specialist Antarctic aviation”.
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) told the ABC it requested assistance from the Australian Antarctic Division and the New Zealand Defence Force to transport the US Antarctic Program (USAP) participant to Christchurch for emergency medical treatment.
“The individual arrived at Christchurch on July 31 and was admitted to Christchurch Hospital in serious condition.”
The United States has its own planes, air force pilots and military staff in Australia. It is this masthead’s opinion that, given the treatment dished out to Australia by alleged US pedophile and 34-time convicted felon, US President Donald John Trump, he should be told to “fuck off” and leave the Yanks to their own seppo devices.
America, from its Australian military bases or even from the US state of Hawaii (the closest US state to Antarctica), then Trump should have used US resources and risked US pilots’ lives rather than Australians.
Would Trump send us any help? No. In fact, in the USA, his ICE Gestapo has detained and even sent to his gulags Australian citizens in the United States. All Trump and the US send us is hate, bigotry, racism and tariffs. As stated in The Castle, it’s time Australia told America and all Americans “to go and get stuffed.”
It’s time for Australia to close Pine Gap, stop “military rotations” and “joint training exercises” cancel AUKUS and ANZUS and send every US troop here back to America. If they refuse to leave, jail them.
Two of the most important words in the English language, “thank” and “you” and the President of the United States doesn’t know how to even utter such words.
I know in my heart that if Mr Barack Obama were still the US President, he would have likely called a press conference and uttered the words “Thank you.” Even if he didn’t call a press conference, I am confident President Obama would have at least uttered the words “thank you.” But that’s beyond America and most Americans now.
America is over. America is not Australia’s ally. Never truly has been.
To Americans, Australia is just a forward operating base for US-backed genocide, such as Pine Gap, which should either be closed down entirely or returned to Australian sovereignty with all US communications links to Pine Gap cut off or jammed. We don’t need sepppos down under.
Like during the Vietnam War, Aussies showed, yet again, that American exceptionalism is a facade. In ‘Nam, 500 US troops failed with Heuys; lunch choppered in, but four – yes, just four – Aussies on foot got the job done instead. Meanwhile, the seppos lost 250 of those 500 troops. Of the four Aussie troops? None were lost.
Never trust a Yank. Just look at their President, the representative of every single seppo, whether the Yanks like it or not; he represents all Americans bar none on the world stage.
History shows that the powerful US gun lobby group, the National Rifle Association, has used the argument that “Americans need guns to overthrow a tyrannical government,” usually uttered by NRA spokespeople after the latest – almost daily – mass school shooting.
It appears the NRA was using that statement as cover, as the US now has a tyrannical government and we don’t see any Americans using their gun rights to overthrow it, as the NRA promised the world that that was why Americans needed AK-47s at home in the first place.
China is the world superpower now, and America is old news and “yesterday’s hero.”
