The pilot, Sean Loutitt, had done this before...

They landed under cover of darkness, to no fanfare, just a couple of pats on the back.

After more than 24 hours of flying across the ice of Antarctica -- in a tiny plane that left Calgary two weeks ago on a desperate mission of mercy -- pilot Sean Loutitt eased up on the throttle and touched down on the runway of Punta Arenas Airport just after 8:38 p.m. (MDT) Sunday.

Thirty minutes later, the lights of a second plane appeared in the sky as pilot Jim Haffey followed Loutitt's lead.

The near-perfect landings, guided by the bright, blue lights of the tarmac and a waning moon, marked the end of one of the most daring polar rescue missions in history.

It had never been done before.

Not at that time of year, not in that bone-chilling cold, not in that mid-winter darkness.

When the two Kenn Borek Air crews flew out of Calgary, destined for Antarctica in late April 2001, the chances of success were slim, but unknown.

Nobody had flown to the South Pole at that time of year, that deep into the polar winter. Nobody had even seriously attempted it.

But a life was on the line, 59-year-old U.S. doctor Ronald Shemenski desperately needing surgery to remove his gallbladder and, unbeknownst to him, repair clogged arteries damaged by a heart attack several months before.

The team did succeed, the two de Havilland Twin Otters skipping down the South American continent before one piloted by then 33-year-old Calgarian Sean Loutitt edged into the darkness, touching down in -69 C temperatures on an icy runway marked by flaming 55-gallon drums filled with gasoline to pick up Shemenski.

It was so cold, bare flesh would freeze to metal and airplane fuel would turn to jelly if an aircraft stayed on the ground for long. It was so cold, heaters had to be placed in and around the lone airplane to keep its moving parts from freezing.