The Australian Antarctic Program on Friday launched an operation to rescue a scientist with a “worsening medical condition” from a remote base in Antarctica. According to the government agency, the RSV Nuyina left port on the island of Tasmania to pick up the researcher, whose identity has not been revealed.
Withdrawing by air was not possible due to the weather conditions in the region, which is witnessing the winter season. According to the BBC, the medical problem the world suffers from has not been disclosed either.
However, the ship is equipped with a helicopter and requires weeks of preparation before the flight begins. The Australian Antarctic Program also added that everything is being reported to the researcher’s family and that other people at the country’s science base are fine.
About 20 people are currently living at Base Casey, one of three bases Australia maintains on the mainland. The ship will have to travel 3,000 km from Hobart in Tasmania. Operations of this kind are extremely complex due to the isolation of the site and the wintry weather conditions of the planet’s southernmost continent.
