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Search underway for 3 Canadians after plane missing in Antarctica

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CALGARY - It would almost certainly be Bob Heath leading the rescue, if it wasn't Heath's Twin Otter lost on the side of an Antarctic mountain.

Heath, the star pilot of Calgary-based Kenn Borek Air, has been confirmed as one of three Canadians missing in an apparent plane crash on the frozen continent.

"Kenn Borek just phoned me to say Bob's plane was down, and they were trying to reach it," says Lucy Heath, from the couple's home in the Northwest Territories.

"I'm just waiting for news."

For a pilot's wife, it's the most dreaded news.

It doesn't matter that your husband is a grizzled air veteran with thousands of hours in the air, and a legend of extreme polar flying.

The call comes, and all you can do is sit and wait for the next call.

Lucy's voice breaks as she talks about what news the next ring of the phone may bring.

"I'm so worried," she says, fighting back tears.

Wednesday was especially frustrating for friends and family of the three missing Canadians, who lost contact late Tuesday night while flying from the South Pole to Terra Nova Bay.

That's because authorities know almost exactly where the Twin Otter is located in the Queen Alexandra mountain range, after a beacon was triggered following the apparent crash.

But knowing where the plane is and reaching the crash site are two different things in a hostile environment like Antarctica, and weather kept rescuers at bay on Wednesday.

"It's a pretty inaccessible spot. It's on a plateau about 13,000 feet high," Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand spokesman Steve Rendle told QMI Agency.

New Zealand is leading attempts to reach the 19-seat plane, because it's in the part of Antarctica closest to that country.

A United States C-130 Hercules plane has already flown over the suspected crash site but couldn't see anything, and thick cloud has since prevented aircraft from spotting the Otter.

"Weather conditions are extremely challenging," Search and Rescue mission co-ordinator John Ashby told reporters in New Zealand.

"There are winds of 90 knots at the site and conditions are forecast to worsen with snow becoming heavier."

The Kenn Borek Twin Otters, 14 of which are reportedly ferrying researchers and equipment around the South Pole this summer, are equipped with extreme weather survival gear.

And if anyone is an expert on polar conditions, it's Heath.

"I have done nine or 10 trips to Antarctica as a pilot for Kenn Borek and worked for the Americans, Italians and tourist ops at Patriot Hills," Heath was quoted last year in an interview with Australian media.

"I also fly in the Arctic and do grizzly bear, polar bear and Beluga whale surveys."

A check pilot for Kenn Borek -- meaning a person approved to conduct pilot training and proficiency checks -- Heath is considered an expert in polar flying and survival.

In the same interview, he talked about a previous close call at the South Pole when the ground split open at a camp, and the whole crew had to pack the plane and flee.

"After hearing a loud "crack" I looked out of my tent to see a crevasse opening up right in the middle of the camp," he said.

"Most things were hastily thrown into the Twin Otter and out they flew as the entire camp below became part of the crevasse."

With clouds too low to stay aloft, Heath managed to taxi the Twin Otter two hours over the ground to a nearby fuel cache, where it took another 12 hours to dig up the frozen petrol drums.

But he and his passengers made it out okay -- and that's just one of the survival stories that helped make the Canadian pilot a hero of the frosty climes.

Heath's employers in Calgary were staying mostly silent on Wednesday, issuing only a vague statement confirming it was a Kenn Borek plane that was down.

In 2007, a Kenn Borek Air DC-3 crashed on take-off in Antarctica when it collided with a snow drift, but no one was seriously hurt.

michael.platt@sunmedia.ca

 

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