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IBEW Key to South Pole Rescue

May 1, 2001

The whole world was impressed with the rescue of a critically ill doctor from the South Pole on April 26, 2001. Two IBEW brothers, working at the Pole on a special assignment, played a big role in that dramatic mission. Below is a first hand account from Brother Aaron Coy of Local 48, Portland, Oregon.

Greetings to my brothers and sisters of the IBEW. My name is Aaron Coy of Local 48 in Portland, Oregon. I am currently working at the South Pole, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. I work with Brother Dave Arnett of Local 292 Minneapolis, Minnesota, who is the electrical foreman here. The current crew down here is just the two of us journeymen, with one apprentice. I just wanted to pass along that it was two IBEW wiremen that worked long and hard to help pull off what was believed not possible-a medivac landing at the South Pole in the middle of winter, with temperature at -90F.

We both credit our creativity and troubleshooting in this unique environment here at the Pole to our respective IBEW apprenticeship training and our fellow brothers and sisters of the IBEW. IBEW electricians are the best trained and hardest working in the world, and we are proud to call ourselves members of the IBEW.

With temperatures in the -80 to -90F range and wind pushing the wind-chill factor to -120 to 145F, it was a challenge. But we were successful, and we hope to show what a couple of IBEW electricians can do to meet the challenge and succeed.

Dave and I worked 'round the clock preparing for the historic flight. Some of the projects we dealt with were heat tracing and insulating electrical cords for the Twin Otter plane to hook into while the pilots rested, providing lighting of the taxiway for the plane with "smudge pots" filled with jet fuel, waste old and scrap wood and wiring up a warm-up shack placed near the taxiway for all those involved.

The rescue went smoothly, all things considered. Dave and I went out to the taxiway to turn on the heat trace on our electrical cords that we would be plugging into the plane. We had strung out the cords a couple of days prior, and didn't roll them up because they would break if you unroll them. But I still was repairing other electrical cords and lights. At 10:30 AM, the smudge pots were lit. There were 30 smudge pots, made from 55 gallon drums cut about 2 feet from the bottom, lining one side of the skyway about 500 feet apart. It was quite a site seeing points of fire up and down the skyway for about 2 miles.

We heard the plane was about 15 minutes out, and we still had 8 smudge pots to light at the front of the skyway. They lit the last pot with the plane less than a minute away. The landing was perfect.

Everyone was fine, and we received our much needed salt, which we ran out of about 1-2 weeks ago. The pilots decided on staying for 10 hours to sleep and rest before the 10 hour flight back to the British base on the coast. After the plane stopped on the taxiway, Dave and I assisted the flight engineer in plugging in the plane and putting in space heater in the cabin. I later volunteered to go out to the warm-up shack we hooked up out at the skyway to make sure the circuit breaker didn't trip. I went out there at about 1:30PM. At 4:00PM, we took our group winter-over picture with everyone on the base including both doctors, Doc Ron and Doc Betty.

After that I stayed out at the warm-up shack to watch the plane. They planned for a midnight takeoff but after the pilots checked the weather, they decided to leave at 2AM.

We then refilled the smudge pots and brought out tanks containing about 1,000 gallons of fuel to refuel the plane. They also brought out 3 Herman-nelsons, portable diesel heaters used to warm up planes and other big equipment. At about 2:15AM, the plane was started but some of the hydraulics in the tail controlling the flaps were frozen. We called to get the Herman-nelsons back to heat up the flaps. They ran their engines the whole time, and we had to bring out another 100 or 200 gallons of fuel.

Finally, at about 5:00 AM, the plane was working right and was ready to go. But then it appeared the plane was stuck in the snow. So a couple of guys stood on a car-like vehicle with tank treads, and shook the plane's wing. This caused the whole plane to rock back and forth. But finally the plane broke free and taxied to the skyway. The plane turned around and took off and flew in the -64F air.

Brother Aaron Coy, Local 48 Portland, OR
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, South Pole, Antarctica

Brothers Aaron Coy
 & Dave Arnett

Aaron Coy stands with pilot

The Crew Works
 to keep the 
Twin-Otter Warm

Electrical Connections
to Plane

Warming up the Twin Otter

Ready to Go