A frosty reception in Antarctica

SYDNEY, Australia – A British pilot forced by bad weather to abandon her attempt to fly around the world over both poles said Friday that an Australian aviator stranded at a research station on the Antarctic coast could use fuel she had stored there.

The offer by Polly Vacher ended a diplomatic spat between Australia and its two closest allies – the United States and New Zealand – who had refused to refuel Jon Johanson’s homemade plane.

Johanson flew over the South Pole last weekend before getting stuck on an ice runway in Antarctica without enough gas to get back to New Zealand.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer appealed to New Zealand or U.S. authorities to refuel Johanson’s plane, which is stranded at McMurdo-Scott base on the frozen continent’s coast, but they refused.

Johanson got a frosty reception because of a longstanding policy at some Antarctic research stations of refusing to sell fuel to adventurers.

Lou Sanson, chief of Antarctica New Zealand, a government-funded research outfit, announced Vacher’s offer.

“Polly’s trip was well organized and properly planned,” he said. “It is ironic that she is now assisting a stranded pilot who embarked upon an ill-prepared and secret flight over the South Pole.”

Johanson was expected to fly back to Invercargill on the southern tip of New Zealand some time on Saturday.

Vacher was left stuck on the other side of Antarctica for similar reasons earlier this month.

The intrepid 59-year-old grandmother was forced to turn back a flight heading over the South Pole toward McMurdo-Scott when high winds meant she did not have enough fuel to complete the trip.

She gave up her historic flight because of delays in getting fuel to the British Rothera base.

“This is a positive solution to a difficult situation and hopefully highlights the harshness of operating in the Antarctic environment,” Sanson said.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who knows Johanson personally, had tried to persuade U.S. and New Zealand authorities to waive the rule this time, but they refused.

The U.S. National Science Foundation and Antarctica New Zealand, both government-funded scientific research programs, do not “supply or stock fuel for private individuals,” the U.S. agency said in a statement e-mailed Thursday to The Associated Press.

Australia is one of Washington’s staunchest allies – sending troops to fight alongside U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq – and has a long and close relationship with neighboring New Zealand.

But those friendships did not extend to selling Johanson the 105 gallons of fuel he needed to fly back to New Zealand.

Instead, the U.S. National Science Foundation said he could fly out – as a passenger on board a scheduled supply flight – and have his plane carried to New Zealand on a freight ship.

Johanson left Invercargill on Sunday and flew his homemade RV-4 airplane 3,680 miles in 26 1/2hours to cross the pole.

He was forced to land at the U.S.-New Zealand McMurdo-Scott base in Antarctica after high winds foiled his plans to fly on to Argentina.

Antarctica New Zealand spokeswoman Shelly Peebles said the organization doubted Johanson ever intended to fly to Argentina, and had always planned to land at Scott Base.

“He abdicated complete personal responsibility for any kind of contingency plan or consideration of how he was going to get back with limited fuel,” Peebles said.

Johanson denied that and said his carefully planned trip was derailed by bad weather.

“Any suggestion that this was a flight on a whim is far from accurate,” he said.

With one of the most harsh and inhospitable climates on earth – winter temperatures can plummet to lower than minus-112 degrees – Antarctica has long been a magnet for adventurers.

But it is also the realm of hundreds of scientists from around the world who brave the conditions in isolated communities, probing its ice for frozen clues to mankind’s past and staring into the pollution-free skies with telescopes.