Originally Posted by
perfrej
John,
Are they operating as far as 140nm from the ship? That sounds odd (unless it's an AS355).
Do you know what they're doing there so late in the season or, for that matter, which ice breaker that has responded?
/per
There is a news item
here:
A HELICOPTER carrying four people working with a French research station has disappeared in bad weather in Antarctica after sending a distress beacon, French authorities say.
It had taken off from a ship, the Astrolabe, which works out of Hobart helping to resupply the Dumont d'Urville station and rotate its staff through Australia.
The missing helicopter was carrying the pilot, a mechanic and two staff from the French Polar Institute Paul-Emile Victor. The beacon was sent from an ice field about 60 nautical miles from the Dumont-d'Urville station in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, the territory's administration said.
Deteriorating weather forced back a second helicopter sent to the area to search for the missing chopper and its passengers, but the operation would resume in the daylight, depending on the conditions, it said.
"Taking into account that radio contact cannot be established because of the bad weather and the reach of the radio frequency (VHF) being limited to the ground, there is no news about the four people on board," the statement said.
The ship is situated off the edge of the ice field, about 370 kilometres from Australia, and the distress beacon was about 150 nautical miles from the vessel, the statement said.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority was notified shortly after 9pm (AEDT) on Thursday, and has been co-ordinating the search efforts since.
AMSA spokeswoman Tracey Jiggins said a RAAF jet would be sent to the area to look for the crew this evening, after a fruitless effort by a US Air Force jet this morning.
"That aircraft was overhead for about an hour," Ms Jiggins told AAP.
"They were unable to make any communication with the helicopter."
Australia's Antarctic research vessel the Aurora Australis has been diverted but is still at least four days away, while the Astrolabe is ice-locked, Ms Jiggins said.
Weather conditions are hampering a search made already difficult because of the remote location, she said.
"There's no possibility of any helicopters flying today, so our primary aim is to establish communications with the helicopter," Ms Jiggins said.
"We want to find out what sort of condition they're in and if they're okay.
"The last radar tracking of the helicopter had it flying low and slow, so we're hopeful that means the weather was just coming in they just landed because they couldn't see.
"But until we can establish communications with them, we just don't know."
I am going on earlier reports which had the transit as ~140nm: the AS350B2 or B3's are on their first season supporting IPEV, just reporting what has been advised to me as an interested party! The trip is the first of the season, re-supplying the base after the winter season and taking in the 'summer' personnel.