This Month in History, January 2021

A ski-equipped U.S. Navy LC-130F Ski-Herk (Bureau Number 148321, company number 3567) assigned to Antarctic Development Squadron 6 (VXE-6) was flown from an isolated Antarctic site after being buried in the snow after a takeoff mishap on December 4, 1971. A joint Navy and Lockheed Martin team found aircraft structurally sound, with air in the tires and usable hydraulic fluid in the lines after 16 years. The team removed and replaced the aircraft’s ailerons, flaps, all four engines and propellers, radome and cockpit engine and flight instruments. The aircrew flew the aircraft 800 miles from the crash site to McMurdo Sound and then a week later, ferried the LC-130F 1,200 miles to Christchurch, New Zealand.

_{Photo by Liz Kaszynski} 

After returning to service, the aircraft (03 on the nose) was flown for more than a decade and was retired to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance And Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, in 1999.

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