Australia launches mission to rescue Antarctic researcher

Australia has launched an urgent cognition to rescue a researcher with a "developing aesculapian condition" from the distant Casey outpost successful Antarctica.

The icebreaker RSV Nuyina near from Tasmania past week, the Australian Antarctic Program (AAP) said.

It is travelling thousands of miles to scope the presumption aft an aerial rescue was ruled retired owed to harsh conditions.

The AAP said the researcher, an Australian, needs specializer attraction but did not sanction the condition.

The programme added it had taken weeks to hole the Nuyina for the mission, including equipping it with helicopters.

Casey probe presumption is simply a travel of 2,139 miles (3,443km) from Hobart successful Tasmania and 1 of 3 imperishable Antarctic stations tally by the AAP.

The Nuyina, which outgo A$528m ($342m; £271m) to build, has a apical velocity of 16 knots, oregon astir 18 miles an hour, meaning it volition instrumentality weeks to arrive.

It is understood that an evacuation by aerial was not imaginable - the adjacent Wilkins aerodrome adjacent Casey has an crystal runway and is often unusable during the harsh winter.

According to reports the runway would request weeks of mentation to use, meaning sending the icebreaker would beryllium acold quicker.

Medical facilities are constricted and lone astir 20 radical unrecorded determination successful the confederate wintertime erstwhile conditions are astatine their worst.

A spokesperson for the AAP told the BBC that the "wellbeing of our radical is our highest priority".

"The expeditioner's household is being kept afloat informed of the situation," it added. "All different unit connected stations are accounted for and safe."

Australia requires each researchers sent to Antarctica to acquisition lengthy aesculapian examinations earlier deployment.

Evacuations from 1 of the astir inhospitable areas of the satellite are often complex, expensive, fraught with information and tin necessitate assistance from planetary partners.

In December 2020, Australia needed assistance from the US and China to evacuate an expeditioner.

Earlier the aforesaid year, an Australian Airbus A319 was sent to McMurdo presumption to evacuate an unwell American.