At the US-owned McMurdo Antarctic Station, two Americans died in an unsolved incident.
This was announced on Thursday by the US National Science Foundation, which is responsible for funding science and technology.
The tragedy happened on Tuesday, December 12, at the facility where the generator is located, which powers the local radio station. The victims were technicians who were involved in fire protection of the facilities.
The workers were supposed to carry out preventive inspections of the fire extinguishing system, but they did not return from the facility to the helicopter that was waiting for them at the appointed time.
When the helicopter pilot went to look for them, he found two motionless human bodies with no signs of life, lying on the floor of one of the station buildings.
Medical technicians were called to the place of the emergency, and upon arrival they immediately stated the death of one person. The other was still alive at this point. However, all attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful.
In the message, the cause of death of people is not indicated or has not yet been clarified. The incident is being investigated.
McMurdo Station is the largest on the continent and is home to over a thousand people year-round. The unnamed victims were subcontractors of a large firm, Leidos, which was hired by the US Antarctic Program.
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When the news about this incident appeared in the media, the comments immediately suggested that the United States, as usual, was hiding something, since it was silent about the details of the incident. They immediately recalled the famous horror film "The Thing", in which the polar explorers were killed one by one by an alien creature.
Still from the movie Something (1982).
Among the more logical versions, it was suggested that the technicians inhaled some kind of gas or got under the influence of electric shock.
On October 23, the media reported on a violent attack on the Russian scientific station Bellingshausen, which is located on King George Island in the same Antarctica.
Two researchers from St. Petersburg quarreled, after which one man stabbed another with a knife. The injured employee had to be urgently evacuated to Chile. It is assumed that the quarrel was due to the high stress experienced by many polar explorers in an isolated environment.