good ending to an unfortunate day

My day at work was overwhelming, busy, and stressful. Though we didn't get this e-mail from station management until the end of the work day, we were aware of the situation and making changes and arrangements from the time we walked in the door to the time we left work yesterday:

Sent: Thu 12/20/2007 5:37 PM

To: MCM-RPSC All

Subject: Basler Incident

Hello all,
A Basler (DC-3 aircraft) was working with the POLENET project yesterday in the vicinity of Mt Patterson (along the coast to the grid west from McMurdo). The aircraft and passengers were leaving the site when a mechanical issue developed and they decided to return for a landing. There was some damage sustained by the aircraft on landing and it is currently not flyable. Ten people were on board and, thankfully, there were no injuries. There are currently two Twin Otters dispatched to Mt. Patterson that will pickup the passengers and bring them back to McMurdo this evening. I just received notice that both Twin Otters are indeed on the deck at Mt. Patterson.
RPSC Site Manager

McMurdo Station

The Basler is a DC-3 aircraft, retrofitted to fly in Antarctica. It holds 18 passengers and four crew. We tried sending a search and rescue air drop out, but we ended up getting to smaller planes into the location to get the passengers and crew from this flight. In summation, the day was made of all sorts of flight changes to accommodate a search and rescue mission; combined with a C-17 late night arrival and a couple weather delays and mission aborts.

So, by the end of the work day, my friend Lucas was still stuck at Siple Dome (a field camp), we made dozens of changes, and I wore a hole in my jeans.

So, after work, I went to the galley to put on a blank stare and vegetate for a few moments.

The rest of my evening was spectacular. I had an opportunity to catch up with my friend, Michael, sit by myself in the Coffee House, sing in the Chapel with Martin, and then head back to the Coffee House for a few minutes before bed.

Only, my few minutes at the Coffee House turned out to be nearly two hours. First I ran into our town "Santa Claus" who told me about his flying experience on a DC-3 in Morocco with his father when he was 8 years old.

I was a bit distracted by the Italians who had just flown in from Mario Zuchelli Station (at Terra Nova Bay), though, as they were getting drinks and had no American cash to pay for them. So, I bought their first round of wine and then conversed as well as I could with their broken-English-over-Italian-accents.

They were fascinating folks, just dropping in for for an evening before catching the midnight C-17 express up to Christchurch. The French chef was leaving to go back to his job as chef to the Emir of Qatar. I wished he could have made us all dinner last evening; rather than chowing on microwavable mini-pizzas. Instead, after he raided the cash machine for American funds, he paid for my drink. Their pilot told me that he was given a couple months off from his work in Qatar and asked where in the world he wanted to go. Antarctica was his answer and they found him a position at Terra Nova.

Bob, the Kenn Borek Air pilot had plenty of fascinating stories to tell of himself! He's been all over the world. I heard tails from the Arctic, the Maldives, Chile, and many other stops he's had on the way. He finds a touch of humor in the opulence of people and isn't above staying in the dirty town of McMurdo for a few nights.

At the end of the evening, I had to say good-bye to my Italian friend, Roberto, who was based out of McMurdo this season. He is a journalist, funded by the National Science Foundation. He will spend some time in Washington D.C. before traveling back to Italy. Roberto spoke impressive English; though he was as embarrassed, as I might be, when he spoke at times.

When I left, I got to walk the short way back to my dorm in a beautiful snowfall. The flakes were big, and wet, and a perfect way to end the day!