Since the 2024–25 season, Pathfinder Aviation has flown helicopter support for the National Science Foundation’s U.S. Antarctic Program from McMurdo Station on Ross Island. Each October through February, a crew of about 15 pilots, mechanics and helotechs moves science teams, cargo and equipment across McMurdo Sound, the Dry Valleys, the Royal Society Range and the Ross Ice Shelf. One aircraft always stays on search-and-rescue standby. The work is precise and unforgiving. In one mission, the crew long-lined a $2 million research sensor 210 miles back to McMurdo.

The team that makes it happen is the program’s real strength. When Pathfinder took over the contract, it kept 80% of the outgoing crew, bringing more than 130 combined years of Antarctic experience. That crew runs under the same Safety Management System, flight following and maintenance standards that Pathfinder uses at home in Alaska. Antarctic Program Manager Jesse Naiman leads it. Two decades of remote, austere flying in Alaska turned out to be the right preparation for the bottom of the world.

Polar research - to the extreme

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Working conditions at McMurdo Station

From 77.8°S with love.