From Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 31 minutes ago
The RSV Nuyina is a 160 meter long boat. Their task is to supply Australian bases in Antarctica. Wikimedia Commons – CC
The RSV Nuyina, which carries several helicopters, left Tasmania for a remote base in Antarctica to assist an Australian searcher in need of care.
An Australian icebreaker headed to Antarctica on Sunday to rescue a researcher who fell ill at a remote base on the icy continent in the middle of the austral winter, the Australian Antarctic Program said.
The RSV Nuyina, which carries several helicopters, took off last week from Tasmania in southern Australia and is headed to the Antarctic base of Casey, 3,443 km south. The maximum speed in ice-free waters is 16 knots (30 km/h).
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The researcher “requires medical diagnosis and care from a specialist in Australia for a developing condition,” a spokesman for the Antarctic program said in a statement, without specifying what the condition was or the patient’s name.
The Casey Science Base, one of three Australia has in Antarctica, hosts up to 160 researchers in the Australian summer but only around twenty in the winter. An airstrip is located 70 km away, but is not usable in winter due to extreme weather conditions.