Pilot denies U.S. help was critical

Press, 16 January 1986, Page 1

Pilot denies U.S. help was critical

Mr Giles Kershaw, the BHot8 Hot who was to have flown le polar walkers from the South Pole to their ship, denied yesterday that the Americans had bailed out the expedition. “I object to that term ‘bail out’ quite strongly,” he told reporters at the expedition’s press conference yesterday. Mr Kershaw said he agreed to a request from the Americans at McMurdo Base not to fly the expedition’s own Cessna aircraft to the Pole.

“I agreed to that request on one condition, and only on the condition, that the Americans would not say afterwards that they had had to rescue us.

"We could have got everyone out even if the people at McMurdo weren’t there,” he said.

“We had done the difficult part of getting the aircraft off the ship. We had also transferred fuel to the mainland.” Mr Kershaw said there was no problem with the flight to the pole in the Cessna. “It’s been done before.

The Hercules do the flight all the time. A smaller aircraft is neither here nor there. We had a smaller plane because of the circumstances.”

He had not gone ahead with the flight because it was sensible to stay behind and see if anything needed to be done. The master of the Southern Quest, Mr Graeme Phippen, said the offer from McMurdo had been accepted because not to do so might have endangered those who had got off the ship and on to the ice floe. The ship’s crew had called the Americans at the South Pole base by radio when the ship began to sink “to let them know what was going on rather than anything else.” Mr Kershaw was critical of suggestions that expedition members should pay for the cost of being flown out.

“Reparation does not even come into it,” he said. “When you give someone your assistance you give it freely. If I rescue someone, I don’t charge for it.” The expedition was very

grateful for the help of the Americans, Mr Kershaw said.

The expedition’s leader, Mr Robert Swan, said he was not embarrassed to accept the help of the Americans.

“Embarrassed? Definitely not. I am proud. We walked to the South Pole. We did it safely and we did it well,” he said.

Mr Kershaw said: “Going down there as a private expedition was always going to be a problem in terms of what people said about us being foolish.

“But as long as there is a sense of adventure in the world people will want to do these things. And as long as any young chap comes to me with an idea and a sense of adventure, he should get support.” Mr Kershaw hoped that the polar walk would be a forerunner for other private expeditions, not necessarily to the Ice.

“It’s clear that taxpayers are going to have more say in how taxpayers’ money is spent. I would like to see more private expeditions in future,” he said.