7 December 2021
For the first time in history, an Airbus A340 plane has landed on Antarctica.
Boutique aviation company, Hi Fly, has made aviation history by landing an Airbus A340 in Antarctica. The company, which hires out both aircraft and crew, organized the flight from Cape Town, South Africa.
Hi Fly which also specialize in handling insurance, maintenance and other flight logistics, were commissioned by Wolf's Fang, a new upscale adventure camp on the world's southernmost continent. The flight, which transported much-needed supplies to the resort, also served to publicizea new Wolf's Fang project from high-end Antarctica tourism company White Desert.
Led by Captain Carlos Mirpuri, the flight took between five and five and a half hours, with the crewspending less than three hours on the ground in Antarctica. The route, which covers 2,500 nautical Miles flew to the 3,000 meter blue-ice runway at the Wolf's Fang property, which is designated a C Level airport, despite not technically being an airport. This means that only highly specialized crew can fly there due to challenging conditions.
Landing and stopping an A340 that heavy on an airfield has unique potential problems such as the glare from the Bluerequiring proper eyewear to help pilots tomake the approach.
There have been other flights, of course, with first recorded flight to Antarctica claimed by a Lockheed Vega 1 monoplane in 1928, piloted by George Hubert Wilkins, an Australian military pilot and explorer. He took off from Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands. The project was funded by William Randolph Hearst, the wealthy American publishing tycoon. These kind of short exploratory flights enabled scientists and mapmakers to study Antarctica's topography.
While there are currently no airports on the White Continent, there are 50 landing strips and runways - and both Australia and South Africa have interests aviation in Antarctica.
The vast majority of people still travel to Antarctica via ship, but after the successful A340 landing by Hi Fly, experts suggest it won’t be long before ice runways are welcoming more a regular flight schedule.
