Antarctic rescue bid delayed

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32707, 9 September 1971, Page 1

Antarctic rescue bid delayed

f-N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) • BUENO? AIRES, September 8. Bad weather today forced an Argentina Navy rescue aircraft to turn back to the British Antarctic base of Fossil Bluff with two British scientists it was trying to fly out for medical treatment.

The aircraft had taken off this morning for the United States's ’ Palmer Station, which has a medical centre, 500 miles north of Fossil Bluff, but gales and blizzards forced it back after only a few minutes.

Another attempt will be made to fly out the two men tomorrow.

The condition of the scientists, Mr Richard Walker and Mr Roger O’Donovan, both aged 25, is unchanged. Mr Walker, who has a fractured leg and is suffering from frostbite, and Mr O’Donovan, suffering recurring unconsciousness from a liver ailment, were earlier re-

f ported to be in a serious confl dition because of the delay in receiving medical atten- ’ tion.. The call for help from the il team at the lonely British s base in the Antarctic was a first relayed to the Argentine authorities nine days ago by

Sir Vivian Fuchs, director of the British Antarctic Survey, in London, but

conditions prevented the rescue aircraft from reaching the base until yesterday, when it finally landed after a series of short-hop flights across the icecap from Southern Argentina. It was hampered all the way by blizzards and 75-mile-an-hour gales. <