OSLO, Norway – The crew of a Norwegian research base in the Antarctic was racing to clear snow and ice from a closed airfield so an injured team member could be flown to South Africa for treatment, the Norwegian Polar Institute said Monday.

The team member, identified only as a male mechanic, suffered a complex leg fracture at Norway's Troll Base on Queen Maud Land Friday and needs surgery, a news release said.

The base, 150 miles from the nearest coast, has it own airstrip. Antarctica is in the grip of winter, when the runways are normally closed, leaving the six-member team isolated.

Institute director Jan Gunnar Winther said on the Norwegian state radio network NRK that the man's leg had been treated by the team's doctor and the situation was not life threatening. However, he said the injury needs further treatment at the nearest hospital – in Cape Town, South Africa, about seven hours away by plane.

The team, working at daytime temperatures as low as -13 Fahrenheit, must clear two kilometers (1.25 miles ) of runway before a plane can land.

“It also isn't that easy to find a plane that can come,” said Winther. “We don't know who long it will take before the injured man can be picked up, but we hope it is sometime this week.”

The Troll Base was built in 1990 for Antarctic summer use, and was expanded to a year-round station in 2005.

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