For the first time an Airbus A340 landed in Antarctica

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For the first time in history a Airbus A340 landed in Antarctica belonging to the company Hi Fly. Press photo HiFly

Captain Carlos Mirpuri and his crew flew the wide-body aircraft, from Cape Town to the White Continent and back; the trip is from 2.500 nautical miles, flying just over five hours each way. Never before an Airbus A340 had landed on a glacial blue ice rink in Antarctica.

The Hi Fly A340-313HGW registration 9H-SOL has a maximum takeoff weight of 275 tons, will be used this season to carry a small number of tourists, along with scientists and essential cargo to the White Continent.

The flight narrated by the Commander and Vice President of Hi Fly

The crew assembled and departed from the hotel in Cape Town at 5 am local. The transport took 30 minutes to get to CPT airport. Processing through the airport took another 30 minutes and we arrived at the aircraft at 6 am, leaving two hours for our STD (scheduled departure time).

The engineers and ground operations personnel had left the hotel an hour earlier., so when we got to the aircraft, refueling was completed and loading was underway. we expected 23 passengers, all client staff, and since this was the first flight of the season, most of the ground support equipment we would need in WFR (Wolf’s Fang Runway, antarctica) was actually in our cargo compartments. The first two departures have the sole objective of establishing the operation in Antarctica, before the summer season 2021/2022.

The 2500 nautical miles between CPT and WFR would take us 5h10m down and 5h20m back. As this was the first flight, with limited ground support, we plan a response time of 3 hours in WFR.

As usual, we start with a briefing for the crew upon arrival at the plane. This is not another flight, there are specificities related to this very remote operation that we would be carrying out, the hostile environment we would be facing and the need to ensure proper protective clothing is on board.

While cabin checks and catering loading were carried out, my crew and I were inspecting the aircraft, checking your systems, loading the route into the navigation computers and reporting the details of our departure.

The passengers arrived 20 minutes before ETD. They were exactly 8 am, local time, when we turn away from the door. On time. Every time. This is the motto of Hi Fly.

We carry 77 tons of fuel. El 9H-SOL is an A340-313HGW (high gross weight) with a maximum takeoff weight of 275 tons.

Its redundancy of 4 engines and their very long range, make it the ideal aircraft for this type of mission.

The route to WFR was almost direct, after complying with the instrument departure authorization procedure issued by CPT air traffic control. We were soon delivered to Johannesburg oceanic via CPDLC / ADS, thus avoiding the tiring and noisy long-range HF communication that dates back to the years 50.

Finally we detect the track alignment and start setting, selecting flaps and landing gear so that they were completely stabilized 10 miles before the runway. There is also no visual guidance of the glide slope, and the mix of the track with the surrounding terrain and the immense white desert around, makes height judgment a challenge, to say the least.

Altimeters in cold weather also suffer from temperature errors and need adjustments. All of this was accounted for.. We flew with a textbook approach for an uneventful landing, and the aircraft performed exactly as planned. When we got to the speed of the taxi, I could hear a round of applause from the booth. we were happy. After all, we were writing history.

Read the full story here.

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