A Canadian plane carrying two ailing workers from a remote research station at the South Pole has arrived safely in Chile.
The aircraft left Antarctica on Wednesday evening and arrived in Punta Arenas at approximately 9:41 p.m. ET.
Earlier in the day, British Antarctic Survey spokeswoman Athena Dinar said the two workers, whose medical conditions and identities have not been released for privacy reasons, had left the Rothera research station located on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
The plane had picked up the two workers from the remote Amundsen-Scott station, located roughly 2,400 kilometres from the Rothera base.
The approximately 10-hour flight from the South Pole station to Rothera was perilous, Peter West with the National Science Foundation told the Canadian Press.
While earlier reports said there was only one worker in need of medical attention, West said Wednesday that there were in fact two.
A second Twin Otter plane that had been waiting at Rothera as a backup aircraft completed the final leg of the journey to South America.
The evacuation flight made headlines this week due to the perilous nature of the mission.
“The conditions at this time of the year…are extremely cold in the South Pole,” Dinn said. "In the southern hemisphere, we’ve just gone into the coldest day. Yesterday was mid-winter.”
Flying to the South Pole during the winter is extremely rare. Lack of light and extreme weather conditions make flying risky, with temperatures so low they can freeze jet fuel. On Wednesday, the temperature at the South Pole was -60 C.
West said this particular mission was especially daring, as it comes so late in the winter season.
"This has never been attempted before at this time of year, this time of winter in Antarctica," he told CTV News Channel. "It's been done slightly earlier in the winter, but not at this time of year."
There have only been three emergency evacuations from the Amundsen-Scott Station since 1999. Alberta-based airline Kenn Borek Air provided the planes for two of those missions, and supplied two planes for this evacuation.
In 2013, three Canadians from Kenn Borek Air died when their plane crashed into the Queen Alexandra mountain range in East Antarctica.
Researchers have been working at the Amundsen-Scott Station since the 1950s. The station is one of three year-round NSF-led operations in Antarctica.
With files from the Canadian Press
