Turbo Dak down in Antartica

[Buzz Control]

Status: Preliminary - official
Date: 20 DEC 2007
Type: Basler BT-67 Turbo-67
Operator: Kenn Borek Air
Registration: C-FMKB
C/n / msn: 19560
First flight: 1942
Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67R
Crew: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 4
Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 6
Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 10
Airplane damage: Substantial
Location: Mt. Patterson (Antarctica) show on map
Phase: Takeoff
Nature: Survey/research
Departure airport: ?
Destination airport: ?

Narrative:

The DC-3 Turbo plane was charted by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) providing support to a group of researchers at a remote location in Antarctica. The airplane collided with drifted snow and ice while taking off from a field site near Mt. Patterson in West Antarctica. The six passengers aboard the plane were part of the NSF-funded portion of the international Polar Earth Observatory Network (POLENET) project, which is deploying GPS units and seismic sensors across Antarctica.

Sources:

» NSF-chartered Plane Crashes While Taking Off from Remote Antarctic Field Camp (NSF, 21-12-2007)
» CADORS Number: 2007C3509

[Donkey497]

Ouch!!

Any word on the outlook? Short term on-site patches / repair & temporary CofA to major repair base, survey, secure & repair next year or is it W/O?

[BEagle]

The aircraft was charted by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) providing support to a group of researchers at a remote location in Antarctica. It collided with drifted snow and ice while taking off from a field site near Mt. Patterson in West Antarctica.

The six passengers aboard the aircraft were part of the NSF-funded portion of the international Polar Earth Observatory Network (POLENET) project, which is deploying GPS units and seismic sensors across Antarctica.

The aircraft sustained damage to the underside of the nose, the tail wheel collapsed, both main landing gears separated and both propellers were damaged.

[Say again s l o w l y]

That must be a nightmare. The costs to repair that must be astronomic when you take into account the location.

[Avman]

Hence it will, sadly, most likely be declared a w/o. Always sad to see DC-3s meet their end - even the Turbo variety!

[Airline Pirate]

Cool, a DC-3 with scimitar props!

[juniour jetset]

Very crisp pictures with the artic sky backdrop- just a big shame to see a stricken bird in such a sorry state!

[juniour jetset]

Just looked at the company profile on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenn_Borek_Air

seems the dc-3t was their only example of such a plane and now maybe.. it is no more... quite sad really!

[Donkey497]

That must be a nightmare. The costs to repair that must be astronomic when you take into account the location.

Quite probably, but the insurance Company or the US taxpayer will probably be paying as it was on charter to the NSF.

Also as you are not allowed to leave anything at all permanentlyon the antartic continent, cost may not actually come into it. I seem to recall a Discovery programme implying that even sewage has to be repatriated from the South Pole base.......

Not sure just how serious they are about that requirement, but I'd reckon that scrapping a plane full of fuel, oils & various toxic/semi-toxic fluids & other potentially polluting materials by the normal means are not going to be acceptable in this case.

[ehwatezedoing]

It's been done before.

http://www.southpolestation.com/triv...y/321/321.html

Link to a incredible story about the recovery of a LC-130 down in Antarctica.

[CityofFlight]

What a great story of perserverance.

Thanks for, uh...digging it up.

[Capt Fathom]

Judging by that first photo, it's copped a good one on the nose and bleed somewhat!

[lomapaseo]

Judging by that first photo, it's copped a good one on the nose and bleed somewhat!

I couldn't help but notice the same thing. I thought polar bear but then they don't range that far south

Then I thought about skydrol fluid and a busted cat or something like that.

Are the props painted with barber stripes on one side for the same reason that jet engine nose spinners are painted with a swirl?

[Carbon Bootprint]

Also as you are not allowed to leave anything at all permanentlyon the antartic continent, cost may not actually come into it. I seem to recall a Discovery programme implying that even sewage has to be repatriated from the South Pole base.......

Were not the remains of TE901 (the plane, not the pax) left in place on Mt. Erebus?

[pigboat]

This one blew over in a windstorm down there a couple of years ago, and it was salvaged.

[MarkerInbound]

The DC-3TP is still a 1000 pound hydraulic system with 5606, the pink stuff, for fluid. Which is just about the right color for the stain under the nose. It also looks like some has dripped down from the rupture in the belly.

[Donkey497]

Carbon Bootprint
Were not the remains of TE901 (the plane, not the pax) left in place on Mt. Erebus?

Yes, probably the bulk of the wreckage from the accident is still there. However from the nature of the crash and subsequent severe fire, the significant work done to recover and identify the as much of the remains of the passengers and crew as could be recovered, including removal of surface and near-surface wreckage, I think it may well be a case that other work to dig down into the melted ice & snow layers over a very large area to recover the rest would cause more damage to the environment than leaving the remainder in-situ.

A plane like this one, sitting on the surface, essentially still in one piece isn't in the same category as the unfortunate TE901.

[Fly Ginger]

Nice picture pigboat

I used to work over the other side of the hangar (DFC), and indeed, this one did return, not in any small part to the huge knowledge base at enterprise on the DC3. I hope the crew are all ok, best regards to all down there

Fly Ginger

[niknak]

Not being an engineer, or a resident of either pole, how on earth do you go about salvaging a bent aeroplane from such a location?

[golfyankeesierra]

At least it seems it's often sunny weather down there