RUNWAY NOT USABLE FLIGHTS SOUTH DELAYED

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28169, 7 January 1957, Page 8

RUNWAY NOT USABLE FLIGHTS SOUTH DELAYED

It may be some time before Globemasters again fly from Harewood into McMurdo Sound, the main American .supply base in the Antarctic.

In a message received in Christchurch on Saturday afternoon from McMurdo Sound, RearAdmiral George Dufek, commander of Task Force 43, described the runway as unsafe for Globemasters. He said he was awaiting colder weather, which would again make the ice strip usable, and would give three days’ notice of that stage being reached. In the meantime, he would not be making any more situation reports.

An earlier report revealed that when snow was removed from near the middle of the 5000 feet long and 125 feet wide new runway section, which is being built alongside the old ice, runway dips three feet deep and four feet wide were found. The message also stated that maintenance was continuing on the original section of the runway. Rolling the Snow

This involved scooping snow into depressions, levelling it oil and running heavy rollers over it to compact the surface, but snow cannot be compacted when temperatures are above freezing point—the latest temperature reported from the base was 37 degrees above zero Fahrenheit—and the message said that the surface was becoming extremely soft and full of water and holes previously filled in and compacted were reappearing.

One of the P2V7 Neptunes in the Antarctic was expeceted shortly to return to Christchurch, but according to one of the latest reports from Admiral Dufek both are to be retained at McMurdo Sound in the meantime fur operations in support of the South Pole station.