Leg 78 SCRM - Isla Rey Jorge (Antartica) to SAWB - Marambio Base (Antartica)
SCRM - Airport Info
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ICAO code: SCRM
Airport name: Isla Rey Jorge Airport
Location: Isla Rey Jorge
Useful information
Airport elevation: '
Time zone: UTC-3
Lighted runways : Yes
Maximum runway length: '
Runway surface : Asphalt
Instrument approach (ILS, LOC, LDA, and SDF):
Isla Rey Jorge Info
The island was discovered by the British explorer William Smith in 1819. It is approximately 95 kilomters long and 25 kilometers wide with a land area of 2200 square kilometers. Over 60\% of the islands surface is permenantly glaciated. In 1821, 11 men of the sealing vessel Lord Melville survived the Antarctic winter on the island, the first men to do so.
The South Korean Antarctic base on King George Island The coastal areas of the island are home to a comparartively diverse selection of vegetation and animal life, including Elephant, Weddell and Leopard seals, and Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins.
Human habitation of King George Island is limited to research stations belonging to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, South Korea, Poland, Russia, and Uruguay are located on King George Island. Most of these stations are permenantly manned, carring out research into area as diverse as Biology, Ecology, Geology, and Paleontology.
A small amount of specialised tourist activity also takes place during summer.
SAWB - Airport Info
ICAO code: SAWB
Airport name: Marambio Base Airport
Location: Marambio Base
Useful information
Airport elevation: '
Time zone: UTC-3
Lighted runways : Yes
Maximum runway length: '
Runway surface : Asphalt
Instrument approach (ILS, LOC, LDA, and SDF):
Marambio Base Info
The first air reconnaissance that the Argentina Air Force made were on 1951 when the Lieutenant Colonel Gustavo Argentino Marambio flew over Margarita Bay with an Avro Lincoln, registration LV-ZEI, called "Southern Cross", in the northwest sector of the Antarctic peninsula.
The final job of these heavy bombers in the Antarctic zone was the flight made the day 28-OCT-1965 with the B-022 airplane with an experienced crew, commanded by the First Lieutenant Jorge Martinez, conducting in this occasion the "Operation Socorro", which carried out an important raid of almost 22 hours without stops in support of a Douglas C-47, registration TA-05, which was affected to the South Pole Expedition.
In 1952, Marambio Air force lieutenant colonel, being Commander of the General Staff of the Antarctic Tasks' Air Force (FATA), it flew over and it studied the possible landing fields in Antarctica.
The Marambio Island appears in older Antarctic maps indicated with the name of Seymour, in honor of an English sailor who frequented the zone by end of XIX century. The present name arises from the tribute that occurred to the Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Gustavo Argentino Marambio, in the occasion of its death in a tragic plane crash in the city of Mugueta, Santa Fe, the 12-NOV-1953. Marambio had been born in Río Cuarto, Córdoba the 21-SEP-1918.
In the decade of the 60’s the Argentina Air Force persistence in locating an apt zone to establish a runway destined to the regular and continuous operation of heavy aircrafts with its conventional undercarriage (wheels).
The 25-NOV-1968 a Bell UH-1H helicopter, registration H-11 of the Argentine Air Force that left from the icebreaker General San Martín (Q4), manned by the First Lieutenant Enrique Pessana and Lieutenant Ricardo Ciaschini, settled on the plateau of the Marambio island, taking on board with the Commander of the Air Group of Antarctic Operations (GATA), Lieutenant Colonel Mario Luis Olezza, the local expert of zone, Lieutenant Julio Alberto Domínguez and the geologist Héctor Luis Ponte, who next to the glaciologist, Dr. René Edgard Dalinger. They gathered samples of terrain, carried out measurements and observations of the zone, with certain disagreement soon in the beginning and excitement at the end of the expedition, which was reflected in the report produced by Dr. Dalinger.
Embarked in the icebreaker, the Crew 1968/69 arrived at the zone, that later conformed the Patrulla Soberanía, founder of Base Marambio, who were destined to the Air-Naval Station Petrel and to Aerial Base Matienzo which was in emergency.
On APR-1969 a relief flight made with a deHavilland-Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter took place; it flown from the American continent (took off with wheels) and landed over ice in Antarctica with skies on.
The four crew return with the addition of one of the Matienzo Aerial Base’s crew who was evacuated due to severe physical ailment.
Terrain reconnaissance also took place from a Lockheed C-130 Hercules that flew over the Antarctica like the flights made with the deHavilland-Canada DHC-2 Beaver, which operated from Matienzo Aerial Base.
From the multiple studies made, one reached the conclusion that the project of construction of a runway could be materialized on the plateau that crowned the island.
Saying that 29-OCT-1969 is the anniversary of the foundation of Marambio seems an unimportant and daily fact, but it is not it.
This foundation agrees with the inauguration of the first runway of land on the continent, constituting an historical fact of great relevance since it allowed breaking the isolation with this part of the world, where were possible arrive in summer, by sea and when the state of the icepacks allowed it.
Doubtlessly, these new characteristics have an extraordinary value and began a new era in the Antarctic polar cap, with a different dynamic in operations.
With this operational capacity the isolation could be broken, being able to transfer personnel, logistical support, emergencies and evacuations, have flight alternatives and support to the search and rescue operations needed, because it is possible to mobilized in few hours the necessary aerial equipment, and not having to wait for days/months that the navigation to the area (in addition to favorable weather conditions and the state of icepacks) demanded only in summer times.
The fact to say this runway have a ground surface astonishes, because all we know the Antarctica like an eternal landscape of ice and snow. This affirmation has its foundations. The Marambio Island emerged from the sea at very remote times and their plateau rises 198m over the sea level; it has an almost flat surface, conformed by rocks of different sizes and iced argillaceous earth mud, scattered in all its extension.
This singular characteristic keeps the plateau continuously swept by strong winds that avoid the accumulation of snow.
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