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Details of the Daring Airdrop at Tristan Da Cunha
- bananamogul 5mo ago[flagged]
- ofrzeta 5mo agoYou did? What did you make of the word "daring" and the name "Tristan da Cunha"?
- qingcharles 5mo agoI think he was trying to make a joke about Airdrop, I guess.
- cbsks 5mo agoAmazing! Tristan’s entire website is a treasure. It’s a throwback to when the web was great.
- brendoelfrendo 5mo agoAgreed. The story is great, too. A really interesting logistical challenge that arose from unusual circumstances. There's probably something to be said for the fact that TDC is a small, remote community, so it shouldn't be surprising that its website is reminiscent of a smaller, more communal web... but I'm not going to try to read too much into it and let the story stand on its own.
- argsnd 5mo agoUntil recently TDC had a very slow FCDO satellite link that required their website to be quite basic in order to actually be viewable on computers on the island. They now have a fast Starlink connection, but I’m glad they’ve kept the website as it is.
- imdsm 5mo agoIf they hosted locally, it shouldn't have been an issue, they could have had a mirror system, but that's by the by, I love the website
- forinti 5mo agoThey have a slow connection. That's a constraint that will keep you efficient.
- connorgurney 5mo agoI think this is one of the few things as late that makes me feel genuinely proud to be British, because, beneath the hostility that feels so rife across our country recently, we’ve so many good people making things like this happen. Bravo.
- tomjen3 5mo agoIt certainly involved a lot of skill and expense, but how many more lives could be saved if the same money had been spent on improved traffic safety or NHS in general?
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- argsnd 5mo agoProbably not that many. You underestimate how expensive either of those things are. We have obligations to provide services like this to the people living in our overseas territories, and you won’t find many people who’ll oppose that.
- benj111 5mo agoTrue, but this is military expenditure. So would you rather they spend this on an exercise or on actually saving people?
- fiftyacorn 5mo agoYeah and helps demonstrate thst Tristan is strategically important
- bcjdjsndon 5mo agoI think it's rich the English dont like foreigners given how many countries they think they're entitled to posses
- 5mo ago
- qingcharles 5mo agoLiterally one of the worst places to fall seriously ill due to the fact you are absolutely and totally stuck in the actual middle-of-nowhere.
- repelsteeltje 5mo agoFree (but admittedly useless) advice when you plan to fall seriously ill: - do not get on a cruise ship - do not get off at a remote island
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- alibarber 5mo agoFrom what I gathered from the article the person who got off was a resident of Tristan? They have such limited shipping options that this might have been the only way for them to travel from any mainland. Not sure though, but I don't think they got off there to seek medical assistance.
- m4rtink 5mo agoPolar stations are even more inaccessible during polar winter with months of total darkness and it is just too dangerous to reach them. The winter-over crews need to be completely self-sufficient until the sun rises again.
- thinkingemote 5mo agoFor the big McMurdo US base they have flown in a few times in the winter for extremely important life or death medical reasons (last year: Aug 25 [1]) For the smaller other country bases it tends to be too dangerous and impossible. They are not able to use mcmurdo and the americans cant help either. The general rule is that the Americans don't fly during the winter but they do tend to downplay and not publicize the times when they do fly. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/mcmurdo-station-antarctica-medical-evacuation https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/mcmurdo-statio...
- dmos62 5mo agoWhat a heartwarming article.
- musikele 5mo agoThe only reason military should exist is to perform such life-saving, not life-ending, missions...
- pasc1878 5mo agoWhat if you were Ukrainian?
- hambes 5mo agothen the military would also act life-saving, since they are defending the attacked country
- corford 5mo agoSeems consistent. Ukrainian soldiers are performing life saving missions i.e. defending their citizens from an unprovoked attack.
- 4gotunameagain 5mo ago[flagged]
- sofixa 5mo agoGo on the Kremlin's official website and search for "on the historical unity of russian and Ukrainian people". Check the date, read the text, and understand that this was never about NATO or what Ukraine did. putin just is just a megalomaniac obsessed with restoring the russian empire/ussr.
- 4gotunameagain 5mo agoYeah sure. Count how many wars the US started and how many Putin did. He is a power hungry lunatic dictator for sure, but Ukraine is on the US.
- sofixa 5mo ago
- stavros 5mo ago> The plane flew between Inaccessible and Tristan My god there actually is an island called Inaccessible Island! That's fantastic.
- uncertainrhymes 5mo agoIn that case, you will probably also be happy to learn about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unnecessary_Mountain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unnecessary_Mountain
- SuddsMcDuff 5mo agoDefinitely on the short list of locations to build my Bond villain lair.
- pyrale 5mo agoI'm sure you'll be happy to learn that access to Inaccessible Island must be granted by the local government office. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inaccessible_Island https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inaccessible_Island
- wmanley 5mo agoWonderful. I love the poem at the end too.
- echoangle 5mo agoVery nice story. One thing I often ask myself in these situations: What do the inhabitants on these islands actually do? There are 259 of them in this case. Are they self-sustaining? How do they pay for stuff the want to import? Do they live off the cruise ships they supply? And do people generally stay there or do young people generally move to mainland? Edit: For economy, it looks like they live off exporting langustas.
- forinti 5mo agoThe UK built a crayfish processing facility so that they could have income. They also sell stamps and a few handmade crafts such as knitted socks. There are a few government jobs and they must make some money from tourism. And they all grow potatoes for their own consumption.
- bill38 5mo agoLobsters. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250915-tristan-da-cunha-the-lobsters-keeping-earths-remotest-town-afloat https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250915-tristan-da-cunha...
- brazzy 5mo agoThere's actually Street View images, so you can take a look, also at the agricultural plots southwest of the town (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_Patches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_Patches ). There's some sheep, cattle and (I think) donkeys as well.
- bonsai_spool 5mo agoThere was an AMA by a journalist on the island this year: https://www.reddit.com/r/howislivingthere/comments/1q06v24/i_currently_live_on_tristan_da_cunha_the_worlds/ https://www.reddit.com/r/howislivingthere/comments/1q06v24/i...
- ramesh31 5mo ago>Are they self-sustaining? How do they pay for stuff the want to import Generally the modern day population of these types of islands are simply cover for the government to maintain political control of an area of ocean surrounding them. Same deal with the Falklands, Orkney/Shetland, etc. To that end their entire existence is more or less subsidised because of this.
- kitd 5mo agoI'm no expert but that looks like an impressive feat of skill, coming blind through the clouds and picking out a relatively small patch to land on. Remember also it is late autumn there, pretty windy (according to TFA) and the wind would probably be doing weird things off the sea around those cliffs. All in all, very cool.
- fnands 5mo agoThat jump video is wild. Can't see the island until the last few minutes.
- Neil44 5mo agoIn case you're as interested as I was, they have google street view.
- rimeice 5mo agoTremendous stuff. Made better by the throwback web styling. Almost broke out in to the national anthem halfway through the article.
- fnands 5mo agoVisiting Tristan Da Cunha is on my bucket list. Just a shame it takes so long to get there, but maybe that's part of the appeal.
- bcjdjsndon 5mo ago[flagged]
- markb139 5mo agoI think this was also a “look what we can do at short notice” kind of exercise. Just in case a country was thinking of maybe trying to take over another set of islands in the south Atlantic
- pchristensen 5mo agoCapabilities need to be practiced in order to be dependable.
- trhway 5mo agoyes, definitely reminds the famous bombing raid on Falklands. The distance of 2700 km a typical small ship - like say this Costa Guard cutter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend-class_cutter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend-class_cutter and sure South Africa do have ships like this - would have made in 2-3 days. No risk and probably much cheaper compare to the described paratrooping. Though i do think that the paratrooping was nice, just to show that as a civilization we can. On the other side i think it also shows our civilization failure to develop long range VTOL - say like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piasecki_16H_Pathfinder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piasecki_16H_Pathfinder - helicopters with pusher have been reaching 2000 km range, and additional fuel tanks would have gotten such one to 3000km, yet we just don't have such helicopters (or other long range VTOLs) around.
- trebligdivad 5mo agoWere the ICU nurse and Doctor trained for the tandem jump previously - I've not seen that said in any of the stories published. Or did they just find a random ICU nurse and Doctor who was up for it?
- SuddsMcDuff 5mo ago144 Parachute Medical Squadron has a number of specialists available - https://www.army.mod.uk/learn-and-explore/about-the-army/corps-regiments-and-units/royal-army-medical-service/16-medical-regiment/ https://www.army.mod.uk/learn-and-explore/about-the-army/cor...
- jeffrallen 5mo agoIt does not take anything more than listening to instructions and remaining calm to do a tandem parachute. Doctors and nurses on average have those skills. And those who volunteer for a mission like this undoubtedly do.
- youngtaff 5mo agoArticle in the Guardian suggested the medic had been in a tandem jump before bu the doctor hadn't (or it might be the other way around)
- redanddead 5mo agoVery nice poem from a local: On windswept shores where oceans foam, Far from the bustle and noise of home, The island watched the grey skies part, With hope returning to every heart. Across the vastness the RAF flew through, With medicine, medics, and military too, Parachuting in with skill and courage on our shore, The impossible was accomplished to the core. Tristan da Cunha, proud and small, A community who always stand together through it all, Neighbours helping each other, such an amazing sight, Hoping everything done before the loss of daylight.
- gwern 5mo agoIt is not 'very nice'; it's often generic and lacking in any insight or striking imagery, the meter is ragged and inconsistent while the rhymes are often padding or outright slant (through/too, shore/core?). But I will grant it this: despite the AABB quatrain meter making it look exactly like AI slop, the flaws and errors show that it's probably genuinely amateur-written (as does a '100% human' rating in Pangram).
- gaiagraphia 5mo agoThere's a certain irony in that moving forward we're going to have to be 'imperfect' to appear as not being AI. Spelling mistkaes, shit grammar, typos, et,c, just leeet em rock.
- gwern 5mo agoNah, if the meta shifts too far, people will just prompt for lower quality like errors, the same way that if Pangram use gets too widespread, people will just start using anti-Pangram prompts and rewrite services. And since people largely don't notice or care, even here, that meta shift is going to take a long time.
- NoSalt 5mo agoSweet ... I saw the original video just the other day. The fact that they just dropped in from 7K feet, then proceeded to do medical stuff is the very definition of "bad ass".
- ridgeguy 5mo agoThe helmet cam video gave me a sense of just how difficult such operations are. I'm grateful we have people who will accept such assignments.