Three people were injured in a helicopter crash in Antarctica on Sunday night, CNN reports, including the pilot and two scientists on a mission to survey a penguin colony near the Amery ice shelf.
The helicopter crashed 150 nautical miles (170 statue miles) from the scientists' home base at Antarctica's Davis station, according to the Australian Antarctic Division. A team in a second helicopter was able to land on Monday and help the injured, though the rescue will prove complicated as the terrain is uninhabitable and the injured must await additional medical support.
The division reported that while the injured are "warm and sheltered" and are "being closely monitored," their injuries are considered serious.
Luckily, December happens to be one of the warmest months for Antarctica, and on Monday night, the temperature at the Davis station was 32 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The average temperature at Australia's southernmost Antarctic scientific research station in December is 36 degrees, though temperatures can drop to 12 degrees.
"Everyone's warm, everybody's well attended to, there's a field training officer who's got extensive wilderness first aid skills down there so they are very well attended to," an Australian Antarctic Division spokeswoman told the Australian Associated Press.
The cause of the crash is yet unknown.
"We'll obviously obtain maintenance documentation in relation to the helicopter and information about the weather conditions and those types of things," Julian Walsh of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau told NBC News. "But until we know a little but more about the actual circumstances of the accident, it's a little bit difficult to actually determine the more detailed lines of inquiry that our investigation is likely to take."
