The freezing rain and snow of an Upstate winter may seem like the worst Mother Nature has to offer, but it is nothing compared to the ice, wind and cold of the Antarctic.
When you’re down there, anything can happen. It’s an unforgiving continent, said Maj. Paul Bernasconi of the frigid Antarctic conditions.
Bernasconi, a member of the 109th Air National Guard Airlift Wing based out of Scotia, was on his way in mid-October to his tour of duty in Antarctica, with stops along the way in California, Hawaii and New Zealand.
Somewhere near the research facility at Davis Camp in Antarctica, Dwayne Rooke lay incapacitated with a broken pelvis, two broken legs, a punctured lung and a serious problem: He had no way home.
It was in Hawaii where members of the 109th learned they would attempt the daring rescue of Rooke, traversing Antarctica in the longest trip its transport plane has made down there.
Members of the 109th include locals from Saratoga, Schenectady and Albany counties, and they fly out of the Stratton Air National Guard Base in Scotia.
The crew made the dangerous rescue on Nov. 5, and, along with members of the Australian Antarctic Division, helped get Rooke, a chef and part-time medic with an Australian scientific research team, to safety despite 80 mph winds and subzero temperatures.
Rooke’s injuries were from an all-terrain-vehicle accident that broke several bones and punctured his lung. The team’s medic kept him alive for nearly two weeks until the 109th was able to respond, but he was not healing well and needed treatment at a medical facility.
`It was a rewarding mission to do, and it was a success,` said flight commander Maj. Dave Lafrance, a Saratoga native and mission commander.
The crew regularly shuttles supplies, tools and equipment to research locations in the South Pole using an LC-130 transport plane, also known as a `Hercules.`
`They have the most amount of science down there,` Bernasconi, co-pilot and Delmar native, said of the necessity to fly so many missions.
The team works closely with the National Science Foundation, which oversees operations for NASA in addition to other scientific outfits. The NSF actually owns four of the transport planes used by the 109th; the Department of Defense owns the rest.
In the southern hemisphere’s summer months, October through February, the crew flies in Antarctica, and from April through September, they fly transportation missions in Greenland.
The flight time from New York to McMurdo Station in Antarctica was 41 hours. From McMurdo Station, on the southern tip of Ross Island to Davis Station, where Rooke was located, was five additional hours. Rooke was then transported to Hobart, Australia, to receive medical care at a local hospital, Bernasconi said.
The landing strip at Davis Station was a 10,000-foot-long, scraped off patch of ice on top of the sea and had dangerously `shallow` water underneath it.
The runway was hastily made by the Davis crew to handle the massive plane.
Air was the only way to get Rooke off the continent, since the nearest boat was two weeks away, and there was no guarantee he had that long.
The crew said there is no data for the minimum amount of space needed to take off in the massive transport plane since the conditions for every takeoff are different. Typically, pilots need 6,000 to 8,000 feet, Bernasconi said.
Lafrance said that the weight of the plane pushing down against the landing strip could force water toward the ocean floor and then send a wave back toward the plane, which could crack the ice.
`If you land your taxi wrong, you can break your runway,` said Mark Lecours, also of Saratoga and the navigator on the mission.
If that were to happen, the safety of those on board, let alone the mission, were at serious risk.
`A $52 million plane is lost and hopefully we get out with our lives,` Lafrance said of a crack in the runway.
All of the crewmembers needed to be sharp in order for the mission to succeed, the crew explained, and a lot of teamwork was involved.
`Everyone here is highly experienced. They put us together because they thought it was the best mix,` said Lafrance.
Lecours said a lot of factors come into play when flying a mission of this magnitude.
`This is the longest leg I’ve ever flown in a Herc[ules],` Lecours said.
A Hercules has never made the trip from Davis Camp to Australia.
Among some of the responsibilities the crew has to deal with are checking fuel levels, ensuring safe landing sites and maintaining the status of all four engines.
`The odd places we were going, you have to worry about the next step,` Lecours said.
He said winds can affect the flight path, and often picking up a tail-wind to save fuel could mean going a longer distance. The crew used the East Indian Ocean pressure trough to help get them to the landing site.
`If we flew in a straight line, we would have ran ourselves out of gas,` Lecours said.
They spent 13 hours on the ground at Davis Camp, where the crew needed to rest and refuel. They used 55, 92-gallon barrels that were set up and ready to go by the Davis crew, Bernasconi said. He also said the medical technicians that accompanied the crew, eight in total, spent some time stabilizing Rooke before the 10-hour flight to Australia.
During the flight back, the crew kept a close eye on Rooke.
The crew’s engineer, Senior Master Sgt. Mark Olena of Guilderland, said another important factor in the rescue flight was cabin air-pressure. Olena said it had to be monitored strictly, and the plane’s elevation had to be limited to 4,000 feet to help control Rooke’s breathing.
Also part of the crew were loadmasters Master Sgt. Jamie Hill and Tech. Sgt. Joe Axe of Stillwater and Glenville respectively; and medical technician Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Ray of Clifton Park.
Rooke remained at Launceston General Hospital in Australia as of Friday, Dec. 19, according to media outlets.
Spotlight attempts to reach the hospital were unsuccessful.
Air transport at a glance
Stratton Air National Guard Base
Location: East side of the Schenectady County Airport, two miles north
of the City of Schenectady and 12 miles west of Albany.
Buildings: 39
Size: 353,000 square feet, 122.21 acres
Personnel: 526 full time, 1268 part time.
C-130 Hercules
Wing Span: 132 feet 7 inches
Length: 97 feet 9 inches
Height: 38 feet 5 inches
Horizontal stabilizer: 52 feet 8 inches
Speed: 374 mph (Mach 0.57) at 20,000 feet (6,060 meters).
Ceiling: 33,000 feet (10,000 meters) with 100,000 pounds (45,000 kilograms) payload.
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 155,000 pounds (69,750 kilograms).
Operating Weight: 83,000 Pounds
Maximum Useable Fuel: 60,000 Pounds
Maximum Allowable Cabin Load: 36,000 Pounds“