Mercy airlift for sick Antarctica worker

A New Zealand air force plane made a rare wintertime landing on an ice runway in Antarctica today on a mercy mission to evacuate a seriously ill American worker, officials said.

Blizzard conditions eased to allow the Orion aircraft with three medical staff on board to land at the US McMurdo Station science base on the north Antarctic coast before refuelling and returning on a seven-hour flight to Christchurch in New Zealand.