24 hour delay for flight. Pink highlighter tells all you need to know. The reasons are not complicated. The same high winds that kept Fleet Ops. at the runway deposited a lot of snow on the runway. Fleet Ops. needs 24 hours to clear it off.
A delay means, two of, many things in the Antarctic community.
1. There is a group of people who should be in Christchurch, NZ right now.
2. There is a group of people who are in Christchurch, NZ right now.
The first group is likely to be sitting in a dorm room, bags packed and palletized with a hand carry and ECW trying to fall asleep without thinking of being in CHCH.
Either that or they are in a bar. The second group is likely to be in a bar, bags packed and palletized, persuading themselves to go to sleep so they can wake up early before putting on ECW before flying to McMurdo.
Those of us staying go on about our days much as normal. For us it means that the subject of conversation is generally about the upcoming flights or some derivative of. How many pounds of freshies we are getting? 400 or thereabouts. Will the delay mean later flights will be consolidated? Yes or no depending on who you ask. Do you think it will fly tomorrow? Around here? Who knows.
The pink highlighter.