A Hifly Airbus 340 lands in Antarctica for the first time

https://hifly.aero/media-center/hi-fly- ... ntarctica/

Great pictures!

stunning

Video here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBRX3QJJ0Jg

I live in Cape Town and me an my pal pinged each other when we saw this flight depart and head south....not much heads south from here!

Really great to see the video of the landing

Great video, Hifly seems like a really professional operator.

What commercial passenger jets have landed in Antarctica? Now I’m curious what makes the list.

Cool pics and vid. Thanks for sharing. Not something you see everyday, for sure.

Prost wrote:

What commercial passenger jets have landed in Antarctica? Now I’m curious what makes the list.

There is a civilian Il76, operated by Volga-Dnepr which has run regular support flights from CPT over the last few years.

Icelandair have also run their 767's down there from Cape Town. Indeed they had one pass through last week.

The irony of an all-white liveried aircraft landing in an all-white environment. Where's S7 when you need them?

I noticed that there were 4 pilots in the cockpit. I presume the other 2 were for the return flight due to limits on the time the initial pilots had to fly, prep before takeoff and time on the ground (ice ?). Very nice pictures and video. Yes I wish they used a more 'colorful' aircraft but using an A340, an airplane that I consider one of the best looking planes still flying today but more important was the prep, professionalism of the crew.

shankly wrote:

Prost wrote:

What commercial passenger jets have landed in Antarctica? Now I’m curious what makes the list.

There is a civilian Il76, operated by Volga-Dnepr which has run regular support flights from CPT over the last few years.

Icelandair have also run their 767's down there from Cape Town. Indeed they had one pass through last week.

Not 100% sure if I remember correctly, but there is also a A319 operation from Australia.

Best regards and stay safe,
Jonas

Prost wrote:

What commercial passenger jets have landed in Antarctica? Now I’m curious what makes the list.

Titan Airways made a similar trip (including video) on their 763. They have some cool drone footage in the link below. Honestly I was shocked to see them fly the drone right over the aircraft. Can you imagine it coming down, damaging the aircraft? Having a 767 AOG in Antarctica would be a challenge I'd reckon..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTJv8dGQkGA

4 engines for cold places

Antarctica is a place where extra engines sounds quite nice.

I flew a HiFly 2340 from AKL to SYD a few years ago. I wonder if this was the one.

I flew on a Skytraders A319 from Christchurch to Pegasus Field at Scott base, Antarctica,for an Air New Zealand memorial event relating to Erebus.

Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

Paint the A340 tires in white and you'll have a stealth A340 for "White Ops" in Antarctica.

Nice video BTW.

Brought enough fuel for the trip back home, that's a mission where the A340 can still shine. Very impressive pictures and videos!

What an absolute workhorse the A340 is - proving it's worth yet again. And a lovely write up and video by HiFly too. I saw the flight a few days afterwards on FlightRadar24 and was surprised to see nothing about it on HiFly's media channels - worth the wait for sure.

shankly wrote:

Prost wrote:

What commercial passenger jets have landed in Antarctica? Now I’m curious what makes the list.

There is a civilian Il76, operated by Volga-Dnepr which has run regular support flights from CPT over the last few years.

Icelandair have also run their 767's down there from Cape Town. Indeed they had one pass through last week.

The Norwegian Polar Institute chartered a PrivatAir 737-700 BBJ to supply one of their bases a few years ago.



https://www.aircontact.com/boeing-737-l ... 09016.html

The coolest part of the Jet is all of the camofluage.

ojjunior wrote:

Paint the A340 tires in white and you'll have a stealth A340 for "White Ops" in Antarctica.

Nice video BTW.

In all seriousness you bring up a good point, scientific organizations that use aircraft in Antarctica usually paint them red all over


A good precaution in the event of a forced landing when rescuers are looking for you


Red sticks out pretty well, try finding a white aircraft in a white background !

Mortyman wrote:

A Hifly Airbus 340 lands in Antarctica for the first time

https://hifly.aero/media-center/hi-fly- ... ntarctica/

Sign me up, would love to do that trip in an A340

Anyone got vid of the takeoff? Would be even more interested to see that!

FiscAutTecGarte wrote:

The coolest part of the Jet is all of the camofluage.

LoL!

Max Q wrote:

ojjunior wrote:

Paint the A340 tires in white and you'll have a stealth A340 for "White Ops" in Antarctica.

Nice video BTW.

In all seriousness you bring up a good point, scientific organizations that use aircraft in Antarctica usually paint them red all over


A good precaution in the event of a forced landing when rescuers are looking for you


Red sticks out pretty well, try finding a white aircraft in a white background !

Hence my comment about camofluage.. That said... Air Greenland does a fantastic job with their solid red paint jobs.

Very cool

[photoid][/photoid]

Prost wrote:

What commercial passenger jets have landed in Antarctica? Now I’m curious what makes the list.

Only aircraft I know of is Titan Airways 767-300, Icelandair 767-300 and 757-200, Privatair 737-700, New Zealand Air Force 757-200 and I believe an A319 has made a couple of missions from Australia but can’t recall the operator. And now of course HiFly A340. You also have the IL-76 but I wouldn’t classify that as a “commercial passenger jet”.

If anyone else knows of any others then let me know.

XLA2008 wrote:

[photoid][/photoid]

Prost wrote:

What commercial passenger jets have landed in Antarctica? Now I’m curious what makes the list.

Only aircraft I know of is Titan Airways 767-300, Icelandair 767-300 and 757-200, Privatair 737-700, New Zealand Air Force 757-200 and I believe an A319 has made a couple of missions from Australia but can’t recall the operator. And now of course HiFly A340. You also have the IL-76 but I wouldn’t classify that as a “commercial passenger jet”.

If anyone else knows of any others then let me know.

Skytraders have an Airbus A319-100LR, or ACJ319, VH-VHD, based at my local airport, Hobart HBA/YMHB, every southern summer Nov/Dec, Feb/Mar for the Australian Antarctic Division. It flies down to Wilkins Aerodrome at least once weekly, alternating with a RAAF C-17 Globemaster. I've got a few pics of -VHD, on my instagram, @ymhbspotting.

The AAD make the schedule publicly available, https://antapps.aad.gov.au/public/schedules/

23 passengers in an A 340 - was there no larger aircraft available? That must have been very cramped for the passengers.....

I find it very worrying that this flight is only being celebrated here - and no one is thinking about what this means for the fragile and extremely sensitive Antarctic habitat.
The penguins are currently raising their offspring and do not need any disturbance or threat in the form of huge, threatening aircraft over their heads - let alone the emissions emitted by this old bird A 340. It is not only in times of climate change that an ecosystem as sensitive as Antarctica always needs special protection. In some areas, Antarctica already looks like a huge rubbish dump due to the legacy of the various research stations. So please refrain from further jubilant flights of this kind

First jet airliner to land on Antarctica with paying punters was a Convair CV-990A of Modern Air, 22/11/68. Some interesting info here https://www.southpolestation.com/trivia ... rbyrd.html

AirbusOnly wrote:

I find it very worrying that this flight is only being celebrated here - and no one is thinking about what this means for the fragile and extremely sensitive Antarctic habitat.
The penguins are currently raising their offspring and do not need any disturbance or threat in the form of huge, threatening aircraft over their heads - let alone the emissions emitted by this old bird A 340. It is not only in times of climate change that an ecosystem as sensitive as Antarctica always needs special protection. In some areas, Antarctica already looks like a huge rubbish dump due to the legacy of the various research stations. So please refrain from further jubilant flights of this kind

Agree 100%. The fact that we love aviation doesn’t mean climate science isn’t real

SAS lands a boeing 737-700BBJ at the Norwegian Troll research station in Antarctica in 2016







All photos from Troll Research Station courtesy Sven Lidström, Norwegian Polar Institute.

https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/trac ... ntarctica/

There is also a 'scheduled' regular flight from Cape Town with a Gulfstream G550 as part of various tour packages ranging from one day trip to almost a month long cross-continent adventure.

https://white-desert.com/

Was that a DC-3 in the background at Antarctica?

Here's a question, if the situation was desperate, could that A340 take off with one engine unavailable?

MrHMSH wrote:

Here's a question, if the situation was desperate, could that A340 take off with one engine unavailable?

I would guess it could take off and fly back to Cape Town without much problem, especially if the passengers and baggage were left behind and another airplane sent to retrieve them. My question would be whether it could legally be dispatched OEI. I assume it could since it might be quite difficult to fit a flown-in replacement in Antarctica. What about dispatching a twin OEI? That might be part of the logic behind sending an A340 to do a 737's, 767's, or A319's job.

I think HiFly miss an opportunity to add some stickers in the plane to make a very good free advertising, some nicely placed vinyls could have make a lot of good with all the media attention and they cost very little.

Awesome to fly there, I would love to do it, Anyone have the ops specs of the runway??

Nov. 26, 2021 - HiFly is operating another service Capetown - Antartica flight 5M-801 Airbus A340-313 9H-SOL:

https://www.flightradar24.com/HFM801/29fd9316

What will happen to this service now that there is a new Covid variant discovered in South Africa?