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Australian Pilot Stranded In Antarctica
mirio writes "Australian Jon Johanson is currently stranded in Antarctica at the US McMurdo outpost. He was attempting a flight from New Zealand to Argentina via the South Pole when he encountered a headwind that caused him to burn more fuel and divert to the base. Now both the Americans and the New Zealanders there are refusing to sell him fuel. Jon's story is amazing. He has flown his homebuilt RV-4 around the world three times and to the North Pole. You can read about his trips around the world here."
big fucking deal, douchebag. Where the fuck do you think you are, Yahoo?
go eat a cock, nerdfag
You fuckers are just jealous of him.
Go back to deepthroating horsecocks, trolls.
No one offering to voluntarily fly to (and land on) Antarctica could be be charcterized as a "bright pilot" imo.
It's about maintaining friendly relations with your allies of course. McMurdo is a US government run base. Its actions directly reflect on the US Government. Denying fuel to an Australian citizen sends a bad message that the US government doesn't seem to care about anyone. I'd still diagree with it, but it'd make a bit more political sense if it was a French or German citizen that McMurdo wouldn't sell fuel too.
AccountKiller
Didn't he offer to pay for it?
It's funny, because as a US taxpayer, i don't recall
having a say in whether my money was to be used to
fly these arrogant pinheads to McMurdo base, nor
to supply then with fuel to keep warm. What are
they doing there anyway?
But somehow they think a private person flying
there on his own dime, in his own aircraft, who
happen to encounter unexpected weather needs to
be "discouraged" by not letting him buy a few
gallons of fuel. Instead, try forcing him to pay
for shipping his perfectly functional aircraft as
cargo, which certainly will be several orders of
magnitude more expensive, and use much more
extra fuel, just to teach him to stay the hell
out of these bureaucrats' personal continent.
Here's another idea. How about discouraging
illegal immigrants that cost taxpayers billions of
dollars from breaking our laws, maybe by sending
them home? Or even making them pay their own way
while they're here? Oh no? That's not compassionate
enough? Free schools, hospitals and prisons for them!
Stick it to the guy that built his own plane and
got stuck in antarctica. People like that are a
real fucking problem.
Or so says the united states government.
And again- why aren't you nailing the New Zealanders for the same thing? What is your ax to grind?
New Zealand doesn't currently look like a bunch of douche-bags for starting a war over WOMD that never existed in the first place. It's just a little disconcerting hearing how the US continues to act like spoiled children in its international relations.
On an entirely different note I believe McMurdo could probbably spare the fuel much more easily than the New Zealand base. McMurdo in the summer months has somewhere around a thousand people or so. I don't know how big the New Zealand base is, but it's my understanding that the US has the largest presence on Antarctica by far.
It's also harder to come down on New Zealand because I simply don't know much about the country, or the base.
AccountKiller
But no gangs of niggers to terrorize and sodomize you!
Saying that having no contingency plan for a trip like this was a little stupid. Sort of reminds me of the around the world yacht racers where they contingency plan is to rely on whatever Navy is close enough to help them out. Just give the poor guy some fuel (make him pay heavy costs) and send him on his way.
- Mark
I would like to see this forum touch more on the issue of how ethical is it for some hermit in Antarctica to enact an autonomous policy of forcefully discouraging tourism by giving stranded travelers the shaft.
Another "relevant" discussion that could ensue would be: Is the science of exploration really about contingency plans? Or is it more about doing the things we dare to do?
I'll bet This guy didn't have a contingency plan -- he still made Slashdot science news, though.
As an Australian, I find this rather insulting that no one will sell this man some fuel. What is more annoying is that the Americans themselves are tourists in Antartica. The US has no rights to any of the land. Australia and New Zealand have stakes on the largest cliams of land in Antarctic Territory.
The number of times the Australian Navy has travelled 1000's of Km to rescue numerous US, NZ, French and NZ adventurers as they try and sail around the world is so many I have lost count. And on no occassion has the Australian Government ever asked for any payment for these rescue missions.
Where is peoples sense of good will? I don't know if it is different in other parts of Australia, but I have on a number of occasions GIVEN fuel away to tourists that have tried drive across Australia with no comprehension of the distances between fuel stops. All so they can be on the way, and I know that they will be alright.
Maybe next time NZ requires the services of our Airforce (they scrapped theirs), or Navy (they never had one) then we should say no. Or next time the US requires the Australia SAS soldiers to aid in covert operations in foreign wars for oil we should say no.
But then again, maybe they are both just still crying over their poor showing in the Rugby World Cup!!!
Does that mean Australia can let the next person ..... drown?
Only if they are Yanks or Kiwis.
Or the French.
--Yes, but the people at both bases are acting like ASSHOLES to somebody that got STRANDED. Antarctica is pretty inhospitable; wouldn't surprise me if somebody eventually went *postal* given that kind of situation.
--Put yourself in his shoes - you'd be pretty pissed off at the lack of "hospitality" yourself if you couldn't get gas for your ride and had to face the kind of choices he's facing.
.
== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
However if it was a fair stupidity tax, people in the US would pay waaaayy more than $10 per gallon...
Too bad we're the richest most powerful nation on the planet huh? We have many, MANY problems, but I don't hear about anyone rafting across the atlantic to go to the UK.
You should be kissing our asses every day. If it were not for us you'd be speaking German.
Yup, thats what Australia should do:
Send a fuel ship, refuel the plane, and then crash the ship in front of USians base.
They'll really appreciate it a lot, they love fuel!
They can invade a country for fuel but can't sell some fuel to a poor old man in distress.
That will teach em.
I'm a chainsmokin' alcoholic sociopath, so-ci-o-path
Yep. He created the issue by design.
..this guy is just looking for the headlines. Check some of the documentaries on these guys....they fly across borders and land on military bases all the time, claiming fuel issues, etc. They use existing facilities as fuel dumps, and hop from point-to-point, depending on the kindness of strangers.
Someone finally called him on it, and now he's having to deal with that. He may not like the deal, but he's busted, and not in a position to complain.