South Pole Rescue by Canadian Pilots

[tomahawk6]

The air crew are extremely modest and deserve some kind of formal recognition for their skill and daring.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/south-pole-rescue-pilots-dark-cold-no-big-222029212.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was so dark it was like being locked in a closet. It was almost cold enough to damage crucial plane parts. The flight in a small, overloaded bush plane to the South Pole was nine hours each way and there was nothing in between.

So to the outside world the Antarctic rescue flight of two sick Americans in June from a remote South Pole station sounded daring.

To the two Canadian pilots who crisscrossed the icy continent in June said it was really no big deal, but they said they were grateful to learn that the two people they rescued are home and on the mend.

In an Associated Press interview Tuesday, chief pilot Wallace Dobchuk and first officer Sebastien Trudel said they aren't comfortable being called heroes and were just doing their jobs. Dobchuk said his wife, who also has been to Antarctica, probably had "more hardship taking care of my daughter while I was away."

 

[medicineman]

I've flown with that company in Nunavut before, off of Baffin Island...they even had a DC-3 flying at the time, which brought in our heavy equipment.  Very good little airline for polar aviation.

MM

 

[Journeyman]

Very good little airline for polar aviation.

:nod:  They got more out of their Twin Otters than our 440 Sqn folks did (were allowed to)....even routinely pushing the DND Flight Safety envelope. 
I'd fly with them in the north any time.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

That's my cousin Sebastien there  (all Trudel/Trudelle/Truesdell in North America descend from a single ancestor who arrived in N. A. in 1655).

Twin Otters, Caribou, Buffalo! I don't think anyone other than De Havilland Canada has ever managed to build better small planes to take the harshest, toughest, most demanding flying conditions on the planet and the least developed support infrastructure (if any at all). In the hands of good bush pilots, they are unstoppable.

I'd like to point out that there are couple of specially modified Hercs that do the supply runs for that station, but even they never attempt to go there in the dead of the Antarctic winter.

Bravo Zulu, Ken Borek Air.
 

 

[tomahawk6]

That's my cousin Sebastien there  (all Trudel/Trudelle/Truesdell in North America descend from a single ancestor who arrived in N. A. in 1655).

Twin Otters, Caribou, Buffalo! I don't think anyone other than De Havilland Canada has ever managed to build better small planes to take the harshest, toughest, most demanding flying conditions on the planet and the least developed support infrastructure (if any at all). In the hands of good bush pilots, they are unstoppable.

I'd like to point out that there are couple of specially modified Hercs that do the supply runs for that station, but even they never attempt to go there in the dead of the Antarctic winter.

Bravo Zulu, Ken Borek Air.

Their flight has to be one for the records.I am simply in awe of their accomplishment !!

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

You should be in awe T6.

But it's not the first time that Ken Borek Air pulled this off:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/canadians-pulled-off-daring-2001-south-pole-rescue-1.1127682

However, in 2013, an attempt turned to disaster and three souls were lost - see the final part of this report:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kenn-borek-south-pole-rescue-mission-amundsen-scott-1.3638703

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

Flew with some guys from Kenn Borek two years ago out of Resolute in February.  They're awesome!