Friday, January 1, 2010

Fun with Pegasus
















I was off work on Thusday and had the opportunity to go out and do some volunteer work at the Pegasus runway which is McMurdos airstrip for all the heavy aircraft to use once the summer weather warms up and the sea ice runway is no longer safe to use.
It's named after the plane that crashed there in the 70s, and the story goes like this:
October 1970, a C-121J constellation called "pegasus" crashed onto the McMurdo airfield during a Condition One storm ( during condition one storms , people on base are confined to the buildings they are in until the storm subsides, there is usually visibilty limeted to 100 feet or less, winds at 55 knots or greater, tempuratures equalling -100 degrees F )with zero visibility. the flight had already passed it's point of safe return , so it didn't have enough fuel to get back to New Zealand, after circling for hours hoping for conditions to change they tried to put the plane down as safely as they could and ended up plowing into a snow bank caused by the high winds which spun the plane around tearing off it's propellers, engines and the entire right wing.. no one was killed in the crash.
The wreckage is still laying there to this day the majority of it buried in snow and ice with just the rear tail standing high above the drifts about a mile and a half from where the currently used runway is today.
The pictures are from Pegasus, I don't have a picture of the actual crash since you're not allowed to be by it and we could only be in proximity because of the clean up detail we were on. After the crash they used the surrounding area to dump random trash and burn garbage, not it's up to the environmental department do organize clean ups of the old sites like that. They tell me plans are in the works to finally remove the Pegasus crash wreckage.
In the distance there is a picture of Mt. Erebus, the closest active volcano to the station and the smoke coming off the top is easily seen thanks to the fantastic weather that day. The tiny red box with tank treads is a Pitt Bullie, that is what we rode in coming from the main runway to the wreckage site.. it sure isn't built for comfort LOL.
I'm not sure what kind of plane is in the picture but it is one of the smaller ones used to fly people into the smaller field camps out on the ice surrounding the station where they do various research, ice drilling and the like.
I also learned that I need to apply more sunscreen, I got a hell of a burn on my face working all afternoon out in the bright sun with all the reflective snow.. I'm not accustomed to pasting it on so heavy since I work in the galley and my outdoors time is typically limited.
I'll add the link to the Antarctic Sun Newspaper for those that want followialong with current happenings down here.
Thanks for stopping by and don't forget the sunscreen!
-B

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