Australian plane to airlift patient from U.S. Antarctic outpost

(Reuters) - An Australian aircraft aims to make an emergency flight to Antarctica this week to evacuate a member of a U.S. government expedition who may need urgent surgery, U.S. authorities said on Wednesday.

The U.S. National Science Foundation said the rare evacuation flight would be made to and from an ice runway or landing strip known as Pegasus near McMurdo Station, one of three year-round research outposts it runs in Antarctica.

An A319 Airbus from Australia's Antarctic research program will be used for the airlift, as no U.S. aircraft are in a position to respond to the situation quickly, the NSF said.

It added that the weather could potentially hamper the effort.

It is winter now in Antarctica and flights are usually only made in summer, but the NSF said the patient - an American member of one of its projects - "may require immediate corrective surgery."

"Antarctica is currently emerging from its six-months-long night, so there is a period of twilight at midday that could assist pilots in landing on the ice runway," the agency said.

An Australian government statement said Australia was also providing a specialist medical team. It said the team would fly to McMurdo from Christchurch in New Zealand "when light and weather permit."

(Reporting By Tom Brown; Editing by David Brunnstrom)