Boeing 787 Dreamliner successfully lands in Antarctica
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger plane successfully landed in Antarctica. With a capacity of hundreds of passengers, the plane owned by Norse Atlantic Airways became the largest aircraft to land in the ice region.
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| (Photo: globalair.com) |
Boeing 787 Dreamliner landed in Antarctica on Wednesday (11/15/2023) night local time. The plane landed on an ice runway 3,000 meters long and 60 meters wide made of snow and ice.
Flights to Antarctica are not open to the public
The plane departed Oslo on Nov. 13, stopping in Cape Town before heading further south on Wednesday night to make a landing in Antarctica.
However, flights to Antarctica are not open to the public. The plane was carrying 45 passengers consisting of scientists from the Norwegian Polar Institute, who had chartered a flight to take them and 12 tons of equipment to the Troll research station in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica.
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Norse Atlantic Airways CEO Bjørn Tore Larsen said he was proud of the successful flight and landing in Antarctica.
"It is an honor and great joy on behalf of the entire Norse team because we have reached an important moment together with the landing of the first 787 Dreamliner," he said quoted from CNN, Saturday (11/18/2023).
"In the spirit of exploration, we are proud to take part in this important and unique mission. This is living proof of our highly trained and skilled pilots and crew, as well as our state-of-the-art Boeing aircraft."
Camilla Brekke, director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, said using larger aircraft was a more sustainable way to reach the notoriously fragile runway.
"The most important aspect is the environmental benefits we can achieve by using large, modern aircraft... [which] can help reduce the overall emissions and environmental footprint in Antarctica."
"The landing of such a large aircraft opens up new possibilities for logistics in Troll, which will also contribute to the strengthening of Norwegian research in Antarctica," he added.
Not only does it have a lot of passenger capacity, but the cargo space of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is also quite spacious. Then the plane was also called quite economical because the plane managed to reach Antarctica and return to Cape Town without the need to refuel.