Updated at 8:30 a.m. ET: A medical team was heading to Antarctica on Wednesday in a bid to rescue an ailing American expeditioner.

The Australian team of five landed in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Wednesday night. Team members were monitoring the weather in Antarctica before flying on to McMurdo Station in their Australian Airbus319 aircraft by the end of the week, conditions permitting, officials with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and the U.S. National Science Foundation told NBC News.

The Australian Antarctic Division is a branch of the government's environment department.

Debbie Wing of the National Science Foundation told NBC News that a a U.S. C-17 aircraft was on standby in case the Airbus could not manage the trip.

From the archives: Why Antarctic rescues are so dangerous

The National Science Foundation had asked for help on the emergency mission and were in charge of the operation, AAD spokeswoman Patti Lucas Lucas told NBC News. Australian officials did not have any details as to the expeditioner's age or sex, she added.

McMurdo Station, established in 1955, is the largest Antarctic station, according to the National Science Foundation.

According to the U.S. Antarctic Program's website:

"McMurdo Station ... the main U.S. station in Antarctica, is a coastal station at the southern tip of Ross Island, about 3,864 km (2,415 miles) south of Christchurch, New Zealand, and 1,360 km (850 miles) north of the South Pole. The original station was built in 1955 to 1956 for the International Geophysical Year. Today's station is the primary logistics facility for supply of inland stations and remote field camps, and is also the waste management center for much of the U.S. Antarctic Program. Year-round and summer science projects are supported at McMurdo."

AAD director Tony Fleming earlier told the AFP news service that all countries with an interest in Antarctica "work together very cooperatively in these sorts of emergency situations in Antarctica to provide support when and as required."

Vast Antarctic ice sheet 'in play' with global warming

Similar evacuations from the icy continent rare, with the last such rescue having happened in October 2011, when an American scientist suffered a stroke at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and had to be airlifted out. 

Around 30 countries operate permanent research stations in Antarctica, the AFP reported. 

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Two American students survived nine nights in the freezing New Zealand wilderness after rationing their supplies and warming themselves on natural hot pools.

Alec Brown and Erica Klintworth, both 21, were not found until Sunday after having braved heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures in the area for several days despite not being equipped for extreme conditions, New Zealand's Dominion Post reported.

 Search and rescue leader Sean Judd said he "didn't have a good feeling" when he heard the two students were missing, the newspaper reported. "Given the weather and the time delay, (I) was quite relieved when they turned up alive." 

Friends raised the alarm after the Wisconsin couple did not return from a trek as expected between June 4 and June 6, the newspaper added. 

Hiker beats hypothermia to survive 3 nights in desert

Brown and Klintworth rationed their food of peanut butter, rice, fruit, and nuts, took dips in hot pools, and slept in a hammock tent strung between trees, the newspaper reported. They were both in "amazingly" good spirits and condition, it added. 

Judd told the newspaper that while the couple, both students at Canterbury University, had made some good decisions, such as not crossing a rain-swollen river, their preparedness and attention to the weather forecast was not so good. In addition, the two did not leave their hiking plans with anyone before going out, which meant that rescue officials did not know where to look for them after friends raised the alarm on Saturday, he reportedly said.

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Boston University is mourning the loss of three students studying abroad who died in a minivan crash in New Zealand.

Austin Breashears, Roch Jauberty and Daniela Lekhno were traveling in a minivan near the North Island vacation town of Taupo when the vehicle drifted to the side of the road and then rolled when the driver tried to correct course, New Zealand police said.

Five other students were injured in the accident early Saturday, including one, Margaret Theriault, who was airlifted from the crash site to a hospital in Taupo. In a statement Sunday afternoon, local health official Mary Anne Gill said the 21-year-old woman had surgery Saturday and was in intensive care. 

New Zealand police said Sunday two other women, one 20 and the other 21, were in stable condition. The other two injured — a 20-year-old man and 20-year-old woman — were released Saturday.

More than 200 people gathered Saturday night at Boston University’s Charles River campus for a candlelight vigil for the students.

Bizuayehu Tesfaye / AP

Boston University students including Tori Pinheiro, third right, of New Bedford, Mass., the girlfriend of victim Austin Brashears, hold a candlelight vigil on Marsh Plaza at Boston University on Saturday.

"We know these students were alive with hopes, dreams and potential and capacity, all dashed," BU president Robert Brown told the crowd.

Fellow student Tori Pinheiro cried as she recalled how friendly Brashears was and how much she loved him.

She said she had found an old voicemail he had left her. "I listened to it four times, just to hear your voice," she told the crowd as she tried to fight back tears.

Brashears was from Huntington Beach, Calif., and was president of the BU men’s water polo club last semester, the university said. According to the New Zealand Herald, he celebrated his 21st birthday a few weeks ago by bungee jumping from the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Boston University

Austin Brashears, Daniela Lekhno, Roch Jauberty

Jauberty, 21, had lived in Los Angeles and Paris. He had a double major, international relations and economics, and a minor in business administration and management, the school said. Jauberty interned at the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston.

Lekhno, of Manalapan, N.J., was studying business administration and management, with a minor in finance. She was a former member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority.

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New Zealand police spokeswoman Kim Perks said Sunday the cause of the crash isn’t known and the investigation "will take some time."

The van was one of three carrying 26 BU students to Tongariro Crossing, a popular hiking site in the north of the country, according to the university. No BU staff was involved with the trip, which was organized by the students. The lead van proceeded to its destination, its passengers unaware of the disaster behind them, the school said. The second van stopped at the scene of the accident.

Boston University's website quoted student Evan White, who was in one of the other vans, as saying that he and others saw the crash in the rearview mirror and backed up to the site.

"We saw people lying in the road and saw wounded people and just felt kind of helpless," he said. "Our first impulse was to do whatever we could, but everyone had a sense of helplessness. I helped people away from the van. Others ran to a house to get help."

Brashears' mother, Julie, told The Boston Globe that he frequently posted photos on Facebook documenting his adventures in New Zealand, including bungee-jumping off the Auckland Harbor Bridge on his birthday. She said he planned weekend outings for the study abroad group.

"Everyone called him the cruise director," she said. "He wanted to include everybody on the trips. He loved having an eclectic group of friends."

Student body president Howard Male, a friend of Brashears, said that before leaving the students said they hoped to view scenery captured on film in the "Lord of the Rings" movies.

"They were all so excited to be able to go explore what many guidebooks ... have called some of the most beautiful places on the planet," Male said.

The tragedy cast a pall over the campus as some students anticipated approaching graduation and others packed up at the end of the school year.

Study abroad program executive director Bernd Widdig called the students' deaths an "unprecedented tragedy," the worst to hit the program since it began in the 1980s. The New Zealand part of the program began in 2003 and involves courses at the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology.

All the students except Theriault were enrolled in a BU study abroad program in Auckland, the BU website said. Theriault was enrolled in a study abroad program in Sydney, Australia.

The deaths were the latest in a series of tragedies to befall the campus this semester. According to The Boston Globe:

In January, sophomore Joshua Goldenberg suffered serious head trauma after jumping from a second-floor window to escape a blaze in an Allston apartment building.

Two BU hockey players were arrested on sexual assault charges.

And in April, graduate student Kanagala Seshadri Rao, 24, was found dead, with gunshot wounds to his head and leg, on a residential Allston street.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Updated at 1:30 p.m. ET: Three Boston University students were killed and five others hospitalized in New Zealand on Saturday when their minivan veered and then rolled over several times.

Joseph Bergen, the U.S. vice consul in Auckland, identified the deceased as Daniela Lekhno, Roch Jauberty and Austin Brashears, according to Boston University.

Of the five hospitalized, a 21-year-old woman was in critical condition at Rotorua Hospital, the New Zealand Herald reported. Two other women aged 20 and 21 were in stable condition there and a 21-year-old woman and 21-year-old man were treated and discharged at Taupo Hospital, the Herald said.

The families of all students in the accident were informed, police said.

The injured are Stephen Houseman, Alys McAlpine, Emily Melton, Kathy Moldawer and Margaret Theriault, Boston University stated.

Lekhno was from Manalapan, N.J., Brashears from Huntington Beach, Calif., and Jauberty's parents live in Paris, the university added.

Police said the students were traveling in the minivan at about 7:30 a.m. Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET Friday) near the North Island vacation town of Taupo when the vehicle drifted to the side of the road and then rolled.

"The driver appears to have corrected, or over corrected, and the vehicle started to roll and then cartwheeled down the road," police inspector Kevin Taylor told reporters.

John Cowpland / New Zealand Herald via AP

Eight Boston University students were in this minivan when it crashed near Turangi, New Zealand, on Saturday.

The students were reportedly headed for Tongariro National Park, where they were planning to hike the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

A second vehicle carrying more Boston University students and a student from another American university was traveling behind the first in convoy.

Those in the second vehicle "are traumatized ... and don't wish to speak to media," New Zealand police said in a statement.

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Police could not confirm if the students had been wearing seat belts but said that some had been thrown from the vehicle, indicating that might have been the case, Taylor said.

"This is a horrible tragedy," Boston University President Robert Brown said in a statement. "Our prayers go out to the students and their families. We will do all we can to provide comfort and assistance to those who have been injured, and to the families and friends of the victims."

Two of the students who died were studying at the University of Auckland and the other was at the Auckland University of Technology, the Boston Globe reported.

The head of University of Auckland's study abroad program told the Globe he believed 47 Boston University students were enrolled there.

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