Some of the seismic stations are very far away from McMurdo, and cannot be efficiently reached by Twin Otter planes. Thus a camp was erected on the Polar Plateau with the help of this LC130 Hercules aircraft, and served as a field base from which the remote stations could be reached by the smaller Twin Otter planes. The large US Air Force Hercules aircraft is fully loaded with fuel, skidoos, tents, provisions, 7 expedition participants, and a crew of soldiers. The camp lies so high up on the dome shaped Polar Plateau that the scientists have to take special altitude medicine to avoid getting altitude sickness.