Adventure Tourism
Not all tourists visit Antarctica in the comfort of tour ships. A brave few sail yachts to the region, climb mountains or get involved in extreme sports on the continent.
While there is the argument that everyone has the legal right to visit Antarctica, a threat to the continent comes from smaller expeditions that are becoming increasingly common by individuals and small parties. Antarctica requires careful planning and a series of fail-safe rescue procedures if anyone gets into difficulty. These smaller expeditions often fail to do this adequately and resort to "humanitarian" requests for aid from shipping or nearby national bases when they get into difficulty.
HMS Endurance
In recent years a number of `adventurers’ have required rescuing from Antarctica. Below is the story of one that involved HMS ENDURANCE.
Explorers or boys messing about?
The Guardian, January 28, 2003.
Yesterday a new adventure undertaken by British explorers Steve Brooks and Quentin Smith almost led to tragedy when their helicopter plunged into the sea off Antarctica.
The men were plucked from the icy water by a Chilean naval ship after a nine-hour rescue which began when Mr Brooks contacted his wife, Jo Vestey, on his satellite phone asking for assistance. The rescue involved the Royal Navy, the RAF and British coastguards.
Last night there was resentment in some quarters that the men's adventure had cost the taxpayers of Britain and Chile tens of thousands of pounds.
Experts questioned the wisdom of taking a small helicopter - the four-seater Robinson R44 has a single engine - into such a hostile environment.
There was also confusion about what exactly the men were trying to achieve. A website set up to promote the Bering Strait expedition claims the team were planning to fly from the north to south pole in their "trusty helicopter".
But Ms Vestey claimed she did not know what the pair were up to, describing them as "boys messing about with a helicopter."
The drama began at around 1am British time when Mr Brooks, 42, and 40-year-old Mr Smith, also known as Q, ditched into the sea 100 miles off Antarctica, about 36 miles north of Smith Island, and scrambled into their life raft.
Mr Brooks called his wife in London on his satellite phone. She said: "He said they were both in the life raft but were okay and could I call the emergency people?"
Meanwhile, distress signals were being beamed from the ditched helicopter and from Mr Brooks' Breitling emergency watch, a wedding present.
The signals from the aircraft were deciphered by Falmouth coastguard and passed on to the rescue coordination centre at RAF Kinloss in Scotland.
HMS Endurance in Antarctica
The Royal Navy's ice patrol ship, HMS Endurance, which was 180 miles away surveying uncharted waters, began steaming towards the scene and dispatched its two Lynx helicopters.
One was driven back because of poor visibility but the second was on its way when the men were picked up by a Chilean naval vessel at about 10.20am British time.
Though the pair wore survival suits and the weather at the spot where they ditched was clear, one Antarctic explorer told Mr Brooks' wife it was "nothing short of a miracle" that they had survived.
Both men are experienced adventurers. Mr Brooks, a property developer from London, has taken part in expeditions to 70 countries in 15 years. He has trekked solo to Everest base camp and walked barefoot for three days in the Himalayas. He has negotiated the white water rapids of the Zambezi river by kayak and survived a charge by a silver back gorilla in the Congo. He is also a qualified mechanical engineer and pilot.
He and his wife spent their honeymoon flying the helicopter from Alaska to Chile. The 16,000-mile trip took three months.
Mr Smith, also from London, claims to have been flying since the age of five. He has twice flown a helicopter around the globe and won the world freestyle helicopter flying championship.
Despite their experience, it is not the first time they have hit the headlines for the wrong reasons.
In April, Mr Brooks and another explorer, Graham Stratford, were poised to become the first to complete a crossing of the 56-mile wide frozen Bering Strait between the US and Russia in an amphibious vehicle, Snowbird VI, which could carve its way through ice floes and float in the water in between.
But they were forced to call a halt after the Russian authorities told them they would scramble military helicopters to lift them off the ice if they crossed the border.
Ironically, one of the aims of the expedition, for which Mr Smith provided air back-up, was to demonstrate how good relations between east and west had become.
The wisdom of the team's latest adventure was questioned by, among others, Günter Endres, editor of Jane's Helicopter Markets and Systems, said: "I'm surprised they used the R44. I wouldn't use a helicopter like that to go so far over the sea. It sounds as if they were pushing it to the maximum."
A spokesman for the pair said it was not known what had gone wrong. The flying conditions had been "excellent".
The Ministry of Defence said the taxpayer would pick up the bill, as was normal in rescues in the UK and abroad. The spokesperson said it was "highly unlikely" it would recover any of the money.
Last night the men were on their way to the Chilean naval base Eduardo Frei, where HMS Endurance was to pick them up. Ms Vestey said: "They have been checked and appear to be well. I don't know what will happen to them once they have been picked up by HMS Endurance - they'll probably have their bottoms kicked and be sent home the long way."
This incident highlights the potential problems of operating adventure tourism in Antarctica, including the practical difficulties of search and rescue in the event of an accident and the legal problems (e.g liability) associated with the non-sovereign status of Antarctica. The potential environmental impacts of accidents are also a concern.
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