Antarctica Forums › Forums › Antarctic Memories Message Board › Discussion topics › Ken Borek Plane down in Antartica
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January 24, 2013 at 4:17 am #1380
thepooles98
KeymasterI just read the news. Any word yet on the plane?
January 24, 2013 at 2:35 pm #11613spidey
ParticipantAll I have seen is the link Roxxane posted.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=126676&org=NSF&from=newsJanuary 23, 2013
Officials with the U.S. Antarctic Program are cooperating with their Italian and New Zealand counterparts, as well as the Rescue Coordination Centre in Wellington, NZ, in a search-and-rescue effort to locate a propeller-driven aircraft that is believed to have crashed in a remote and mountainous part of Antarctica.A three-person crew is believed to have been aboard the de Havilland Twin Otter when contact was lost with the plane in the early morning hours of Jan. 23, Eastern Standard Time (U.S. stations in Antarctica keep New Zealand time). The nationalities of the crew are unconfirmed at this point.
The missing plane was flying in support of the Italian Antarctic Program under the logistical responsibility of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), and was en route from NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to the Italian research station at Terra Nova Bay when contact was lost with the aircraft in a remote region of the Transantarctic Mountains.
The aircraft is owned and operated by Kenn Borek Air Ltd., a Canadian firm headquartered in Calgary that charters aircraft to the U.S. program.
Communications between U.S. officials at McMurdo Station in Antarctica and the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Centre confirmed that an emergency locator beacon had been activated.
Officials are monitoring conditions at the site, where the weather is currently very poor, to decide when to launch a search of the area and what kind of aircraft to use.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) manages the U.S. Antarctic Program through which it coordinates all U.S. scientific research on the southernmost continent and in the surrounding Southern Ocean as well as providing the necessary logistical support for the science.
-NSF-
January 26, 2013 at 4:04 am #11609jpan18
ParticipantOh gosh. I just read about this and thought of you all. I’m sending my prayers for a safe return for all parties involved. Thankfully, it sounds like the weather is getting better!
January 26, 2013 at 3:02 pm #11610Sciencetech
KeymasterWreckage found.
January 26, 2013 at 3:33 pm #11611spidey
ParticipantJust heard that. What tragic news.
January 26, 2013 at 3:54 pm #11612thepooles98
KeymasterSad,
The telemetry data said the plane took a big dip, rose and then came to a sudden stop. The wreckage confirms that. It looks like they slammed into a mountain face at 13000 feet in an unsurvivable crash. Rescue crews will be trying to make their way there soon, but there appears to be no hope. -
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