ENGINE CHANGED ON PLANE STRANDED ON ICE SHELF

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28440, 21 November 1957, Page 20

ENGINE CHANGED ON PLANE STRANDED ON ICE SHELF

(From

DENIS WEDERELL,

“The Press'* Correspondent with the

U.S. Antarctic eapedition.l

LITTLE AMERICA, Nov. 17. Their eyes red from lack of sleep, and their hands oil-grimed, six men returned here tonight after changing the engine of the Navy Dakota which was forced down on the Ross Ice Shelf 200 miles from here on Tuesday. Tn little more than 36 hours in near-zero temperatures they completed a job which normally takes two to three days to do in a well-equipped workshop. “We worked right through,” said Lieutenant Lloyd Peterson. “It was the only way to get the job done out there. One or two

of the men were able to snatch an hour or two’s sleep in the aircraft, but that was all.” The Dakota was forced down near the barrier at the seaward edge of the shelf early on Tuesday morning while flying from here to McMurdo Sound, about 400 miles away. No-one was hurt. The repair crew were dropped off by another aircraft late on Friday afternoon and they started work immediately. By 6 a.m. the following morning—11 hours later —they had the faulty engine out and stripped. “Not Easy” From then they waited another five hours before another aircraft arrived, this time from McMurdo Sound, with the new engine. This they had to manhaul across the snow on runners for 50 yards to bring it under the tubular steel frame and the hoist which straddled the cowling. “This took us about half an hour, or 45 minutes,” said Lieutenant Peterson. “It was not the easiest part of the job.” A parachute shelter was rigged over the repair frame as a windbreak, and one of the ducts from the aircraft engine pre-heater directed into it for warmth. In this heat the men could work without coats or gloves. This same heater ran continuously for the 48 hours the team was on the ground, warming the good engine, warming the new one, and heating the aircraft cabin as a living shelter. A second heater, which was flown in with them, was stripped and parts used as spares on the new engine when required. The men were at first too busy and then also too tired to cook properly, but they warmed rations and made soup and coffee

as they needed it. As AD2 George Stewart said tonight: “We got by. We had plenty of food—there was about enough there for a month if we had wanted it” This is the first of the four grounded Navy aircraft to be repaired. The others are a Neptune at the South Pole, another Dakota, at the camp at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier, and another Neptune, at McMurdo Sound. The squadron’s operations have been considerably hampered by the loss of these aircraft, and every effort is being made to get them all airborne again.