interesting call to make here...
Adelaide, Australia adventurer Jon Johanson builds an experimental Aircraft and flies it over the South Pole. Unfortunatly, Johanson was forced to land his aircraft at the US-NZ McMurdo-Scott base after high winds prevented the adventurer from reaching Argentina.
He now needs a bit more than 100 Gallons of Gas (400 liters is what he is asking for) to fly back home. Problem is that neither the USA or New Zealand will sell the gas to him...
Story is
here and
here
He is currently a guest of the McMurdo-Scott base and they will ship him home for free and send his plane back to Australia for the cost of the freight.
A quote from the N.Z. people:
bq. But Antarctica New Zealand said no-one knew Johanson was coming and he had done nothing about emergency or refuelling plans.
bq. Spokeswoman Shelly Peebles said American and New Zealand authorities were being painted in a bad light but Johanson had taken a very irresponsible approach.
bq. "He abdicated complete personal responsibility for any kind of contingency plan or consideration of how he was going to get back with limited fuel," she said.
bq. "He made his plans by himself but we are offering him a way home from a predicament he could have avoided."
He got himself into this and what if they bailed him out - what would the next incident be...
Posted by DaveH at December 10, 2003 11:16 PM