Pilot stranded in Antarctica causes diplomatic storm

SYDNEY, Australia -- What does a man have to do to get a tank of gas in Antarctica?

A daredevil Australian pilot who flew his homemade plane over the South Pole last weekend has ignited a storm between Australia and its two closest allies -- the United States and New Zealand -- who are refusing to refuel his aircraft, which is stranded on an ice runway on the edge of Antarctica.

Pilot Jon Johanson's frosty reception came because he has fallen foul of a long-standing policy at some Antarctic research stations of refusing to sell fuel to adventurers.

"I'm not very optimistic about being able to persuade the New Zealanders and the Americans," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Thursday.

The U.S. National Science Foundation and Antarctica New Zealand, both government-funded scientific research programs, do not "supply or stock fuel for private individuals," the U.S. agency said in a statement e-mailed Thursday to The Associated Press.

"NSF's policy is that private expeditions should carry sufficient insurance to cover the costs of search and rescue efforts, if needed."

The foundation argues that rescuing adventurers and explorers who get stranded on the icy continent is expensive and endangers their staff.

Downer, who knows Johanson personally, tried to persuade U.S. and New Zealand authorities to waive the rule this time, but they refused.

Australia is one of Washington's staunchest allies -- sending troops to fight alongside U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq -- and has a long and close relationship with neighboring New Zealand.

But those friendships do not extend to selling Johanson the 105 gallons of fuel he needs to fly back to New Zealand.

Instead, the U.S. National Science Foundation said he could fly out -- as a passenger on board a scheduled supply flight -- and have his plane carried to New Zealand on a freight ship.

"I guess the officialdom is afraid to be seen to be helping in case the hordes come down and invade," Johanson told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio in a telephone interview. "All I would like to do is make a commercial transaction for fuel."

Downer is due to meet his New Zealand counterpart, Phil Goff, for talks over the weekend, but Goff's office said the matter was in the hands of the country's Antarctica officials -- who have been scathing in their attacks on Johanson and his flight.

Johanson left Invercargill, a chilly town on the southern tip of New Zealand, on Sunday, and flew his homemade RV-4 airplane 3,680 miles in 26 1/2 hours to cross the pole.

He was forced to land at the U.S.-New Zealand McMurdo-Scott base in Antarctica after high winds foiled his plans to fly on to Argentina.

Antarctica New Zealand spokeswoman Shelly Peebles said the organization doubted Johanson ever intended to fly to Argentina, and had always planned to land at Scott Base.

"He abdicated complete personal responsibility for any kind of contingency plan or consideration of how he was going to get back with limited fuel," Peebles said.

Johanson denies that and said his carefully planned trip was derailed by bad weather.

"Any suggestion that this was a flight on a whim is far from accurate," he said.

With one of the most harsh and inhospitable climates on earth -- winter temperatures can plummet to lower than minus-112 degrees -- Antarctica has long been a magnet for adventurers.

But it is also the realm of hundreds of scientists from around the world who brave the conditions in isolated communities, probing its ice for frozen clues to mankind's past and staring into the pollution-free skies with telescopes.

The researchers' refusal to sell Johanson fuel was criticized by fellow Australian adventurer Dick Smith.

"Well, it's a typical situation where the Americans believe they own Antarctica and so if anyone goes there without their control, they do everything they can to make it almost impossible so the person either can't get out properly or no one else will ever come," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "They can't stop anyone from flying there -- it's international territory."