Antartica

When wheeled aircraft can’t land from mid-December to the end of January because of soft conditions, ski planes fly instead to Williams Field ski-way, eight kilometres from Phoenix.

Military from around the world provide air and sea transportation and service support, but these are its only roles. The 1961 Antarctic Treaty, signed by 53 countries permits only scientific, environmental and educational research, and visitation to the 14 million sq km polar mass, sheeted in ice up to five kilometres thick, for peaceful purposes such as tourism and heritage restoration. Nobody owns Antarctica though some countries – New Zealand and Australia included – have staked claims.

Collaboration

New Zealand and the United States have worked collaboratively for 61 years in the Antarctic from Christchurch Airport after the US set up its ‘Deep Freeze’ navy operation there in 1955 with eight aircraft. The US chose the NZ base because of its geographical location in relation to the ice. It is estimated that Christchurch derives NZ$130 million (A$124.8m) each year in economic benefits from the US base, and another $32m from the Italian, South Korean and New Zealand operations.

NZ’s Scott Base is three kilometres from the larger US McMurdo Station on Ross Island on the northeast side of Antarctica. The US also runs the Amunsden-Scott station at the South Pole. Australia’s three bases – Mawson, Davis and Casey – are in the north and west. In all, there are 53 bases operating across Antarctica by signatories to the Antarctic Treaty.

NZDF senior national officer in Antarctica, Lieutenant Commander Ross Hickey, arrived at Scott Base mid-January for a five-week deployment. It coincided with his 60th birthday, his seventh on the ice. The 43-year navy veteran first visited Antarctica in 1999 as a survival-training instructor and was hooked. He’s now on his second posting as senior national officer in charge this summer of the 220 armed personnel including air crew, fuelling operators, army engineers, heavy plant operators, communications specialists and ground support for passenger and cargo management.

Around 90 per cent of the NZDF personnel support the United States Antarctic programme with the balance supporting Antarctic New Zealand.

On this trip he is overseeing a large NZDF crew providing infrastructure services for scientists and offloading 3,000 tonnes of supplies, including food, construction material, scientific equipment, vehicles, general supplies, and maintenance equipment for the next year arriving on the US cargo ship Ocean Giant. Food basics will include 800kg of potatoes, 380kg of coffee and 400kg of flour.

Eighty NZDF drivers and a logistics support team flew in ahead of the ship’s arrival at McMurdo Sound on January 30 to position 450 empty 6.1 metre containers, large flat racks and rubbish from the previous year for the return journey.

Winter doesn’t bring shutters down on six months of daylight until March 20, but Ocean Giant’s visit is a critical part of the forward planning, Hickey said.

“By the end of January our science plan will be set for next season.

“In terms of the NZDF, I’m planning up to 10 years in advance because my commander in charge of overseas operations needs to know more than just one season ahead where assets and staff are.”

Being such a small military unit with five C130H Hercules and two Boeing 757s, a tsunami, Pacific island cyclone, or some other humanitarian cause, would take priority over a season of science in Antarctica, Hickey said.

It hasn’t happened yet, but if there were such a deployment the US would probably provide backup.

Hickey said the strength of the relationship has been demonstrated on more than one occasion.

In 2016, for example, when an earthquake devastated Kaikoura on the South Island’s east coast, a US navy ship visiting NZ for the 75th anniversary of the Royal New Zealand Navy went straight to Kaikoura to assist.

“Having that warship sitting alongside our warship off Kaikoura and seeing that US helicopter landing there was absolute gold,” Hickey said.

In 2017, crew on a US coastguard icebreaker, berthed in Christchurch’s port of Lyttelton, also stepped in to help when bushfires ripped through the city’s Port Hills.

“For all those years when we stopped exercising with US nuclear-powered navy ships because of the government’s nuclear ban, Operation Antarctica carried on in Christchurch,” Hickey said.

He described the relationship as “very much a gentleman’s agreement” where hands are shaken each year on what looks to be a fair deal.

“Absolutely no money changes hands,” he said.

The arrangement enables the NZDF, and the NZ government’s Antarctic New Zealand (ANZ) programme support crew and scientists, to fly to the ice on the US C17A Globemaster III or send containers on US cargo ships. US Antarctic programme members hop on the NZ Hercules or Boeing. A new ice-strengthened NZ Navy ship, HMNZ Aotearoa, presently under construction in South Korea, will enable sea cargo sharing for the first time from 2021 onwards.

“NZ Defence is involved in a lot of operational missions but Antarctica would have to be the longest serving overseas operation,” Hickey said.

“In terms of the NZDF, I’m planning up to 10 years in advance.’
LCDR Ross hickey

“Let us not forget that Sir Edmund Hillary was an air force navigator and the New Zealand Navy brought the navy ship Endeavour down and set up Scott Base in support of his trans-Antarctic expedition,” he said.

“One of Hillary’s best friends was a navy petty officer who went to the South Pole with Hillary.”

ANZ is responsible for developing, managing and executing New Zealand government activities in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean as well as managing Scott Base, headquarters for NZ’s science research in the Ross Sea region.

In 2017 the NZ government announced funding of NZ$21 million (A$20m) over three years for its Antarctica programme with the expectation of funding $7 million for each of a further four years for new Antarctic research and redeveloping the 40-year-old base.

Board chair, Sir Brian Roche said in ANZ’s latest annual report that a new Antarctic strategic science platform will enable ANZ to plan for and support Antarctic science well into the future.

Using German Aerospace satellite data, ANZ proved a route last year across an unchartered section of the Ross Ice Shelf to the Siple Coast, 1,100km from Scott Base. Scientists will now go there to investigate the stability of the west Antarctic ice shelf in previously warmer climates with the aim of reducing the uncertainty surrounding projections of future rises in the sea level.

Scheduling

This summer, 38 flights have been scheduled from Christchurch on the US C-17, five on the NZ Boeing 757 and 11 on the NZ Air C130H Hercules. These are supplemented by numerous trips by the more flexible US LC130 Hercules ski planes.

Wheeled aircraft come in on the Phoenix runway when it is in good condition and the ice is hard enough to land in November. When the runway is closed, from the middle of December to the end of January, US Air Force ski Hercules step in, landing at Williams Field ski-way, eight kilometres from Scott Base.

An Australian Airbus 319, owned by Skytraders and contracted to the Australian Federal Government, also ferries NZ and US passengers in and out of Antarctica at the beginning and end of the summer season.

“We’re totally reliant during the middle of summer on the five US ski Hercules piloted by the New York Air National Guard,” Hickey said.

“Ski Hercules also provide air support for 300 scientists at the South Pole, making two or three flights daily from Williams Field when they’re not flying between Christchurch and the ice.

Weather watch

Hickey said planning around weather was the biggest operational challenge.

As the Antarctic programme is weather-dependent, there are times when aircraft can’t fly the distance to McMurdo because they can’t carry enough fuel to get back.

“A lot more caution around weather suitability for landing is needed prior to leaving Christchurch,” Hickey said.

“We have boomerang flights, where three to four hours out the original forecast changes and our aircraft have to return. But it is not usually a problem.”

The NZDF has been helping the Italian Antarctic team land supplies on a sea ice runway at their Mario Zuchelli research station in Terra Nova Bay, 563km north of Scott Base.

The Italians are building a crushed rock runway so they won’t be hampered in future by the November 20 closure of the ice runway.

“The new runway will certainly be an alternative should the weather prove unsuitable at McMurdo,” Hickey said.

Landing

Landing a plane on the Phoenix runway or Williams Field is not as simple as it sounds. The US Air Force owns both, and aircraft must go through a process to be certified for landing.

Because of the long relationship between the two countries, all NZ aircraft are certified. Before a flight aircraft are “winterised”. Oil is changed and the plane is checked to ensure it is mechanically suitable to operate in extreme cold.

During the summer season temperatures average around -12C to -15C and can rise above 0C but will drop to -40C and colder in winter.

The US C-17s make only two or three flights in winter, using night-vision goggles.

“They don’t shut down because at -50C they might not start up again,” Hickey said.

This requires the aircraft to fly in and out with a fresh crew on board. The NZ Hercules fly only in summer, so after refuelling with a special low flashpoint aviation fuel (brought in by ship), they fly back to Christchurch the following day, giving the pilot and crew their mandatory breaks.

Crew support

Hickey said a large team of fuel people, cargo managers, firefighters, runway managers and and ice compacting team keep the runway open.

In NZ, aircraft are parked at Whenuapai Air Force Base in Auckland until needed in Christchurch.

“When our aircraft come down from Auckland they come with a big maintenance crew who stay in Christchurch to support that aircraft,” Hickey said.

“We sometimes bring two planes down so if one becomes inoperable we have a backup and that’s huge in our reputation for providing flights we agree to.”

Australia

Though Australia’s bases are on the other side of Antarctica, Hickey said Australia and New Zealand worked together to a small extent.

“Four or five Australians work each year alongside our soldiers, sailors and airmen in the ship offload and driver support teams, and one or two aircraft pilots or crew attend our survivor training.

‘They don’t shut down because at -50C they might not start up again’
LCDR Ross Hickey

“It provides them with good experience about operating in Antarctica as the Australian Defence Force doesn’t have the same exposure in terms of logistics support as NZDF does with the Americans.”

The US cargo ship also delivers winter provisions to Australian bases.

Around 90 per cent of the NZDF 220 personnel this summer support the United States Antarctic programme with the balance supporting Antarctic New Zealand.

Helicopters

As well as a fleet of overland transport, ranging from tracked Hagglunds to Columbia tractors for carting aviation fuel to the South Pole, helicopters also play a vital role.

New Zealand’s Te Anau-based Southern Lakes Helicopters has worked on the ice for ANZ for the past seven years. The contract was recently put out for tender and they are awaiting the outcome.

Each summer the company sends two helicopters down to the ice.

Sean “Snow” Mullally, a Southern Lakes helicopter pilot who spent time on the ice last January, said all the helicopters needed for the cold conditions was a change in oil and transmission.

“We transport scientists all over the place and work closely with the Americans with its fleet of five helicopters,” he said.

“It is so beautiful down there; it’s a totally different experience,” he said.

But he was not enamoured with the “horrible light”.

“When it is overcast you can’t see the ground or the horizon,” he said.

This year Southern Lakes Helicopters has been working around the clock. By day, it is with the scientists, and by night (time-wise) it transports researchers doing a three-year project studying Orca whales close to McMurdo after the icebreaker cuts a channel in the Ross Sea.

And, like NZDF, the company has also been working with the Italians.

Costs

Travel to the Antarctic doesn’t come cheap. Fuel for a Hercules is around NZ$63,000 a trip and the air ticket for a person works out at around $1,000 each way.

Kitting out crews in cold weather gear and training adds another few thousand dollars per person to this tally.

NZDF has its own budget so pays the wages of its personnel. The only shared cost with the US and ANZ is aviation fuel.

The New Zealand government’s three-year $21m budget covers the cost of Scott base. Scientists are allocated 40 of its 85 bunks. As soon as one scientist’s bed is vacated another arrives. Of the 45 in the support team, nine are usually military personnel and the rest field training instructors, administration staff, carpenters, technicians, domestic workers, engineers, electricians, pilots, chefs, cargo handlers, fire crew and mechanics. Those working for the US base stay there.

Training

Before support crew leave New Zealand they must do a month of intensive training in Christchurch that includes a week of firefighting with the NZ Fire Service.

“Everyone has to be able to fight fires down here. We can’t ring the fire brigade,” Hickey said.

Another week is devoted to role-specific training. A field trainer instructor, for example, might do field rescue training in the mountains, working with helicopters and specific equipment.

Everyone does medical training, learning standard operating procedures, team building and safety reporting.

“Once they are on the ice they do more firefighting training and spend a week on the handover from those leaving after the winter season,” Hickey said.

“Living in close quarters for a long time requires a certain type of person. You’ve got to select the right person so psychological tests are done before departure.

“This is certainly important for those spending spending 13 months down there.

“If you haven’t got that person selected well, and they are not suited to the environment or there is some sort of conflict, then you may not be able to get them off the ice for several months.”

Scott Base only has a medic in residence, but McMurdo Station makes its doctors and nurses available to both bases, while NZ Defence and the US Air Force work collaboratively on casualty evacuation.

“It could be due to the weather that the person might have to stick it out at the hospital, or even at the South Pole with limited medical care, until we can get an aircraft in to get them off the ice,” Hickey said.

Risky business

He couldn’t think of anywhere else in the world where there is an equivalent risk of landing a plane on ice or a compacted snow runway.

“It is certainly high risk,” he said.

“The Air National Guard who fly the ski Hercules are well practised in those conditions because they fly in Greenland in the off-season, whereas our guys only fly in the summer season.”

The US and ANZ contract smaller Canadian ski planes – DC3s and Twin Otters – to fly on to glaciers for science support.

“There is always some sort of an air accident in Antarctica every season,” Hickey said, reflecting on how it will be 39 years in November since an Air New Zealand McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 crashed into Mt Erebus while on a sight-seeing flight, killing all 257 on board.

The mountain is visible from Scott Base.

But Hickey said he wouldn’t change his job for the world.

“I’ve had the pleasure of flying to a really remote area, 320km south of Scott Base, to dig out 100 drums of aviation fuel left there for many years, and being violently air-sick on the way back when we were buffeted around mountains on a Basler BT-67.”

He also spent four days in a tent on the ice in horrendous conditions.

For all that, he proclaims his work is “a real adventure.”