21 December 2003 - Jennifer and Colin Admitted to Hospital
Author: Sara Tye
Helicopter explorers Jennifer Murray and Colin Bodill are in hospital in the Chilean city of Punta Arenas following a 17-hour rescue mission to retrieve them from the site where they crashed in Antarctica.
Both pilots were taken straight to hospital when they landed in Punta Arenas at 17.50 hours Saturday night (14.50 local). Colin Bodill sustained injuries typical of those received in high-impact crashes. He is undergoing a thorough medical assessment but is lucid, conscious and stable. Jennifer Murray has dislocated an elbow, not broken an arm as was first feared.
Despite his injuries, it is understood that Colin braved the bitter cold to get Jennifer out of the helicopter following the accident and put her into a sleeping bag. He then erected a tent for shelter and lit a stove for warmth before collapsing because of his injuries.
The duo were picked up in a Twin Otter aircraft around three-and-a-half hours after the accident by the Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions rescue team before being taken back to the team’s Patriot Hills base camp. Jennifer and Colin waited at Patriot Hills for the rescue team’s Ilyushin 76 TD aircraft to make the five-hour trip from Punta Arenas and transport the pilots back to the Chilean city’s hospital.
The plane touched down o_n the Patriot Hills "blue ice" landing strip at 12.49 hours UK time (09.49am local) and turned round within an hour to transport the pilots o_n the last leg of their 17-hour ordeal, accompanied by a doctor, to Punta Arenas.
The helicopter accident happened at 1.00am UK time (10.00pm local) o_n Saturday morning, 120 miles north of Patriot Hills o_n the northern section of the Ronne Ice Shelf, as the pilots flew towards South America o_n the latest stage of the Polar First Challenge: an attempt to fly a helicopter around the world from pole to pole that reached the South Pole last Wednesday but has ended o_ne-third of the way through. The pilots used the helicopter’s o_n-board flight-tracking equipment and a satellite phone to alert the rescue team at Patriot Hills to their plight.
Jennifer and Colin arrived at the South Pole last Wednesday in their Bell 407 helicopter, o_n the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight by the Wright brothers. The Polar First Challenge 2003 lifted off from New York o_n October 22nd, 2003. Its aim was to break the pole to pole record and raise awareness and funds for the conservation organisation WWF. Last Saturday, Jennifer met her businessman husband Simon Murray, who is bidding to become the oldest man to walk 850 miles overland to the South Pole unsupported. He is accompanied o_n his trip by Arctic explorer Pen Hadow.
Jennifer Murray, who set the world record for the fastest female solo helicopter flight around the world in 2000, together with co-pilot Colin Bodill, flew down the east coast of the U.S., through Central and Southern America, down to the South Pole. They were in the process of starting their journey up to the North Pole via the west coast of the Americas and Canada, with a view to ending up in New York in mid-April 2004, when the accident happened. Jennifer and Colin planned to make over 160 stops o_n the journey to highlight the work of the WWF, flying scientists to key conservation sites, undertaking mapping and zoning of uncharted territory, tracking illegal destruction of natural resources and following endangered species.
source - Polar First