Today OIB moves its base of operations from Thule south to Kangerlussuaq (“Kanger”) Greenland.
We’ve had a very successful deployment so far, basing from Thule, Fairbanks, and Longyearbyrn, completing all of our Thule baseline and high priority land ice missions, and an array of sea ice missions that has significantly expanded OIB coverage of the Arctic Ocean this year.
A P3 aircraft electrical power system component failed during the post-flight maintenance yesterday. The WFF aircraft branch quickly located a replacement, and delivered to one of our ATM folks traveling to Thule on the BWI-Thule weekly rotator flight early this morning (leaving BWI around 1 am). Following the rotator’s arrival at 8:30 local time, the P3 aircrew installed the component, and the P3 departed for Kanger on a direct transit (no science) flight. Some cargo and spares are also enroute to Kanger on an AMC C130J cargo aircraft.
Loading baggage on the P3 this morning
Loading baggage on the P3 this morning
The Kanger OIB cargo
The AMC C130J that will carry some of our cargo to Kanger
The BWI Thule rotator 757 aircraft carrying OIB personnel and aircraft parts landing at Thule
NASA 426 taking off and the C130J loading
and heading for Kanger.
and the C130J cargo aircraft following the P3 to Kanger