Boomerang

It is the technical term for a flight that takes off but then turns around mid-air and goes back to the starting point.  This is what happened to us yesterday on the way to the Pole.  We took off at 12:45 PM, but only 20 minutes into the flight one of the 4 propellers on our Hercules LC-130 broke, so the mission was aborted and we went back to McMurdo. 
We spent two hours on the runway waiting for take off, so I was able to take a few photos.

Two Baslers (ski-equipped DC3s) on the McMurdo runway.  The Baslers are now serving the camps and no longer going to the South Pole.

The sea ice runway in McMurdo.  Mt. Erebus in the background.

Boarding our Hercules headed to the South Pole.  The propeller on the far right in this picture will experience a hydraulic failure 20 minutes into the flight and we will be coming back to McMurdo on three engines.

Inside the Hercules.

Our next chance for a flight will be on Monday.  The weather is holding on pretty well: blue skies, temperature of 3 F (-16 C) and 10 knots of wind.