two BO 105s down in the Antarctica
 

According to this weekly report published by the AWI Alfred Wegner Institut on December 17th, 2011 a BO105 crashed on its way back from the research station "Neumeyer III" to its base, the research vessel "Polarstern".

Snow showers and strong winds (8bft. = 35-41 knots) are mentioned.
The backup helicopter (another BO 105) was sent out to rescue the crew and the pasengers but suffered a hard landing upon arrivel.

Who's the operator?

I suppose Heliservice International from Emden, Germany.
They operate two Bo105 on Polarstern for many years...

Do I recall correctly another accident involving the the Wegener inst. expedition a couple of years ago bo105 and polar stern?

Please not history repeating......all the best, that environment is absolutely without forgiveness. I will leave the arm chairing to those experts ....suffice to hope people don't think 35 - 41 knots is a severe condition.

DD

This operation is flown by German operator HeliService International - they have a page on their polar flights here

Not the first time they have had an accident down there either - an accident in March 2008 in clear weather resulted in two fatal from 5 POB see Polarstern helicopter crashes near Antarctic research station Neumayer II - ROVworld Subsea Information

IIRC on the 2008 incident the pilot suffered a white out, losing all reference as to the attitude of the helicopter.
I´ve read the accident report a few months ago, it´s available on the LBA website. (german only)

Thomas

losing all reference - yes, but while doing some kind of aerobatics on perfect weather conditions just for fun and to impress the others. A senseless accident and 2 lifes lost.

HeliService International is just a few years in this business. They operate on the Polarstern-research vessel just a few times a year, but the travels are not allways in Antarctica. In the past a lot of pilots were short hired for the short travels (mostly 6 weeks including sea-time) and with seldom further experiences in this special evironment or off-shore. The conditions on the ship and in flight ops are sometimes very rough. May be thats why not so much pilots were interested on a second trip.

@tecpilot

Basically I totally agree with you but in this specific case the pilot of the first helicopter which came down is very experienced in offshore as well as arctic and antarctic flying.

Nice to hear, sounds like that some things are getting better, than in the past.