We had a slight “event” a week or so ago, when our group was at a site called Mt. Paterson. Yes, only one t. Mount Paterson is about 550 miles west of McMurdo, somewhat near the coast. I would have put a post up about this earlier, but it was a somewhat sensitive issue. Enough time has elapsed now, and I think it is important to talk about, so I’m putting up some photos. In short, we had a plane crash in the Basler. If you have read previous posts, you will know that a Basler is a fixed wing aircraft, slightly larger than a Twin Otter, and therefore capable of carrying more weight. It uses skis to land, just like a Twin Otter. I wasn’t on the flight, another member of our group, Bob, ended up taking my place. There were six people from out group total (3 GPS, 3 seismic) and 4 people from fixed wing (pilots, mechanics). Basically, they had finished work, and were attempting to take off. Unfortunately, there were some issues with the take off, and the wing of the plane ended up clipping the ground. The plane spun around and crashed. Among other things, the landing gear sheared off, the props were broken, and the belly of the plane got smashed in a bit. The above photo shows the Basler after the crash. You can see how the props are bent, and the damage to the underbelly of the plane.