A strange thing to wake up to

A few days ago, I wandered into the galley for my morning (evening) coffee and saw two full C-130 flight crews sitting around looking a little dazed. This is very unusual - usually planes fly here from McMurdo, spend as little time as possible down on the ice while people and cargo are exchanged, and fly back immediately. Indeed, when I poked my head out the door by my room, there were two planes sitting out there with their engines off. It was almost surreal!


It is so cold here that it's very difficult to start the engines of these planes once they're turned off. For much of the year, it is too cold to even land them here. Weather back in McMurdo and along the coast must have been really extreme to force both planes to stay here. The crews for both flights stayed the night, and I felt sorry for them - the first night at this high altitude doesn't usually leave you very well rested. All night, operations crews gathered anything around that could generate heat to warm the engines for the next morning. As I was drifting off to sleep after my shift, I finally heard them go.