Icelandair flies to Antarctica and back, here's the incredible journey
A journey that lasted 4 days and 42 hours total flight time, Icelandair touched down at one of the southernmost points [...]
A journey that lasted 4 days and 42 total hours of flight, Icelandair touched down at one of the southernmost points in the world and turned back. The goal was to bring home the researchers Norwegian Polar Institute.
In this article:
The Boeing 767 took off from a runway completely iced, the crew consisted of 6 pilots, 13 flight attendants, and 1 engineer who accommodated on board about 30 scientists and Norwegian researchers returning from the summer research season.
"Troll Airfield" er en av fem rullebaner i #Antarktis som kan ta imot store fly. ✈️ Nå har en #Boeing767 between @Icelandair hentet hjem sommerpersonell og tidligere overvintrere.
Mer om Troll: https://t.co/75VjYxiNXC #TrollStation pic.twitter.com/NzztyrTLrB
- Norsk Polarinstitutt // Norwegian Polar Institute (@NorskPolar) March 1, 2021
The stages of the journey
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The Boeing 767 departed from Keflavík airport in Iceland headed for Cape Town in South Africa, where he stopped for refueling and left part of the team to allow him to rest.
The rest of the crew flew the skies over the Atlantic Ocean for 5 hours and 43 minutes and 4,332 km to Troll, that is, the site of the research station, where he picked up the precious cargo of researchers. He then headed back to Cape Town, where he picked up the rested crew and departed for Oslo.
Finally, after accompanying the scientists home to Norway, he returned to home base in Iceland.
Icelandair is no stranger to such ventures, in fact in 2015 it was the first airline commercial to reach theAntarctica And land on an ice rink.
4 days and 42 flight hours from the top of the world to the bottom, and home again. Last week an Icelandair polar express covered the globe to pick up some scientists and take them home to Norway from their Antarctic base. Ice is, after all, part of our DNA. pic.twitter.com/HyH7LXKSzq
- Icelandair (@Icelandair) March 4, 2021
Scientific research
The Norwegian Polar Institute installed the base, called the Troll, where the researchers live, in the Antarctic area of Jutulsessen. As stated on the research organization's website, it is the base and starting point for:
"biological, glaciological and geological field work during the summer season. But also throughout the year to carry out continuous monitoring of meteorology, radiation, atmosphere, upper atmosphere, environmental toxins and seismology.
Transportation to and from Troll is provided on a 3,000-meter Troll Airfield located on blue ice seven kilometers from the research station. The airstrip is operational in the Antarctic summer, normally between November and February, and is reserved for scientific activities and cannot be used by commercial operators "
Norwegian Polar Institute
Commercial flights to the base, then, are not allowed... a pity because that very area is home to a nice colony of penguins.
Icelandair also lets it be known that the control of the passports in Antarctica is not quite as strict as in the rest of the world, you could even show up without one. Let's just say, though, that going back to South Africa without a passport is not the best idea.
Besides, who wouldn't want to have the station mold in their passport?