For the first time in history, an Airbus A340 plane has landed on Antarctica
Hi Fly – a Portuguese charter airline headquartered in Lisbon was behind the flight, making history after landing the big jet on the snowy runway in Antarctica
The company specialises in wet leases – meaning they hire out the aircraft they use as well as the crew. Hifly are also responsible for handling insurance, maintenance and other logistics.
On its flight bound for snowy Antarctica, Hi Fly 801 took off from Cape Town, South Africa on Tuesday, November 2.
The flight put together by Wolf’s Fang, a new upscale adventure camp on the world’s southernmost continent, and brought much-needed supplies to the resort.
Wolf’s Fang is a new project from high-end Antarctica tourism company White Desert
Both inbound and outbound flights were led by Captain Carlos Mirpuri – who is also Hi Fly’s vice president.
The two flights took around five hours and the team spent less than three hours on the ground in Antarctica.
The blue-ice runway at the Wolf’s Fang property is designated a C Level airport, despite not technically being an airport.
That means that only highly specialised crew can fly there due to challenging conditions, such as the slippery runway and freezing conditions.
History made
The first recorded flight to Antarctica was a Lockheed Vega 1 monoplane back in the year of 1928. The flight was piloted by George Hubert Wilkins, an Australian military pilot and explorer. He took off from Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands.
That project was funded by William Randolph Hearst, the wealthy American publishing tycoon.
Short exploratory flights like these were how scientists and mapmakers got vital information about Antarctica’s topography.
To this day, there is no airport on the White Continent, however there are 50 runways for aircraft to fly into and out from.
