A 190 tonne A340 Airbus plane made a landing on the icy runway on the ice-covered planes of the white continent of Antarctica; this was the first landing in the history of a commercial flight by an Airbus A340 successfully conducted.
This landing on proving successful has opened the road to more tourism on this frozen part of planet earth; this region has been on the tourist map for quite some period but was not so easily reachable.
A340 aircraft’s pilot Captain Carlos Mirpuri has stated that the Airbus started its journey from Cape Town, South Africa, on the morning of November 2nd, then it moved forward to complete a distance of 2,500 nautical miles ( 4,630 km) to the Antarctica continent.
An aviation history record was set as soon as the Airbus made a successful touchdown safely with the crew, machinery on the blue glacial ice making up the runway.
The pilot Captain Mirpuri further stated that the historic flight operation was handled & undertaken by “Hi Fly,” which is a boutique company handling aviation, this flight of the Airbus was chartered by “Wolf’s Gang Luxury Adventure Camp.”
Captian Mirpuri added that this A340 Airbus would be flying a certain number of tourists along with other cargo & scientists coming for research on the continent for the entire season this year.
As the Airbus neared the icy runway for a landing, Captian Carlos Mirpuri recalled there was a lot of anxiety in the cockpit; the runway had been designed with special grooves cut at a certain angle to aid the 190-tonne commercial Airbus to get a good grip on the ice.
The pilot further added that if groves are done improperly, there was a danger of the Airbus slipping on the glacial runway due to the plane’s weight & heavy cargo supply carried in the hold of the Airbus.
The pilots present during the landing have to wear special glare glasses to keep out the glare reflected from the glacial ice. Also, the terrain is so similar to the icy runway making it difficult to identify due to the immense whiteness of everything around the runway.
The pilots have to make a height judgment which also is very challenging given by the surroundings near the icy runway; there is still no actual airport in Antarctica, only 50 landing strips have been constructed on the ice itself.
The landing on ice is very tough; it needs a high degree of skill; the pioneering flight of A340 Airbus landed successfully by Captial Carlos Mirpuri & the team has thus created a name for itself in aviation history.