First-ever Airbus A340 lands in Antarctica, check stunning images here: In Pics

The Airbus A340 is a 19-year old plane doing its duty with Hi Fly since February 2018. Bearing tail number 9H-SOL, the plane was originally configured with 36 business and 218 economy seats, but was reconfigured as a ‘preighter’, with 24 passenger seats and lots of space for cargo.

The plane was carrying 23 passengers from Cape Town, all staff from White Desert, the travel company who chartered the plane for their tourist season. There was also ground support equipment required for the tourist season. The trip takes five hours and 10 minutes down, and five hours 20 minutes back. 

Captain Carlos Mirpuri was tasked to fly the inaugural flight. Vice president of Hi Fly, said “9H-SOL is an A340-313HGW (High Gross Weight) with a maximum take-off weight of 275 tons. It is an airplane that delivers, every time. Robust, comfortable and safe, performs well in this environment. Its 4 engines redundancy and very long range, make it the ideal airplane for this type of mission.”

The Hi Fly’s A340 landed in Antarctica back on November 2nd, but the operator has now shared some breathtaking images of its arrival on the blue ice runway.

White Desert has mainly used a Gulfstream 550 for its operations, but the larger A340 with the increased capacity would allow White Desert to provide transpiration to scientists working on the base as well as their own tourists.

Captain Mirpuri said that the weather for the trip was perfect. A specialist car runs down the blue ice to take mesaurement and inform the plane on the arrival conditions. Mirpuri says that the friction was enough for the quadjet, and so they continued their descent.

The aircraft will now be used to operate tourist flights, transportation for research scientists and to deliver essential cargo to Antarctica.