Pegasus Field
It closed due to excessive melting in the summer season caused by warmer temperatures combined with dust and dirt blown in from nearby Black Island.The limitations of these additional fields meant that before Pegasus opened, jet-powered wheeled aircraft could only fly to/from McMurdo at the beginning of the summer season and all other flights had to be conducted using significantly smaller and slower ski planes.The field is named after Pegasus, a C-121 Lockheed Constellation that made a forced landing on unprepared terrain in bad weather on October 8, 1970.[9] On September 11, 2008, a United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster III successfully completed the first landing in Antarctica using night-vision goggles at Pegasus Field.[10] Previously air transport in the permanent darkness of the winter was only used in emergencies, with burning barrels of fuel to outline the runway.