A flight from Icelandair left for Antarctica last evening, picking up 30 Norwegian scientists who have been working there for the past few months.
The plane will stop at Cape Town, South Africa, and will make its way to the South Pole from there. On its return, it will come back the same way it came but with one extra stop in Oslo.
Árni Hermannsson, CEO of Loftleidir, who are responsible for the flight, told Fréttablaðið: “We flew to Antarctica about ten years ago and then was the same expedition leader who is on this trip. There are six pilots, 13 flight attendants and one flight engineer who make up the crew on this flight.”
I’ll take you right into the danger zone.
Árni Hermannsson went on to say that “Despite the fact that there will only be about 30 passengers, a wide-body jet is used for this flight as a smaller aircraft would not tow all the way. This is a complex flight and there are special conditions when landing in Antarctica.
“As a result, preparations for the flight have taken several months and the crew is as numerous as it actually is. Thus, half of the pilots will remain in Cape Town tonight in order to rest before the return trip, which is scheduled for next weekend,” he added.
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