The last frontier: Antarctic crossing

Talking about no airlines flying the Antarctic, here’s a plot of of Qantas’ regular SYD-JNB route with 180 mins etops circles. Pretty much well off the beaten track don’t you think? Enough to make any long range twin scared!

Ps does anyone know what the longest regular A343 sector is?

It was a special sight seeing Tour. ANZ used to operate it at regular intervals. They would take a lot of seats out to allow pax to move about the cabin more easily.

The tragedy occured because groupd ops programnmed a wrong flight plan into the DC-10’s FMC, which brought them in far too close to the mountain.
The Crew didn’t notice until it was too late. One of the last recorded word from the flgihtdeck was “I don’t like this” seconds later BANG!

Mt. Erebus was completly shrouded in cloud at the time so the crew couldn’t see it.

I think this was blamed on navigational error. Ground ops being held responsible and not the Pilots this time.

They tried to blame Capt Jim Collins for decending below minimum height requirments, but as you say it was a combination of errors mainly caused by the wrong coordinates being delivered to the flight computers, and it wasn’t 1983 it was November 28 1979

Do US/Canada-Russia bound airlines fly over the Arctic?

Yes, they do, depends on the airline and the relations of the particular country with Russia at the time.. BTW, Aeroflot gets ALL of the money collected from these overflights. Pretty hefty income!!!

It was a special sight seeing Tour. ANZ used to operate it at regular intervals. They would take a lot of seats out to allow pax to move about the cabin more easily.

The tragedy occured because groupd ops programnmed a wrong flight plan into the DC-10’s FMC, which brought them in far too close to the mountain.
The Crew didn’t notice until it was too late. One of the last recorded word from the flgihtdeck was “I don’t like this” seconds later BANG!

Mt. Erebus was completly shrouded in cloud at the time so the crew couldn’t see it.

I think this was blamed on navigational error. Ground ops being held responsible and not the Pilots this time.

I guess there is a serious risk there. AFAIK , a DC10 crashed on Mt Erebus in the past and veryone on board was killed.

This was an Air New Zealand in 1983, however, it was on an Antarctic sightseeing tour so perhaps too close to the landmass for comfort?

To fly anywhere between the southern hemisphere continents, Australia/NZ, South America and Africa you have to cross the vast Antarctic where there are no diversion airfields. Obviously 2 engined flying is out of the question, but what about quads flying 6 or seven hours from the nearest runway, what happens if there is a serious emergency??

Does anyone know how these routes are operated.

I guess there is a serious risk there. AFAIK , a DC10 crashed on Mt Erebus in the past and everyone on board was killed. Even If some survived , no rescue could reach the zone on time.

In addition to that it seems to me that Antartic is a protected continent and therefore doesn’t need the pollution brought by the airliners.

Do US/Canada-Russia bound airlines fly over the Arctic?

I Don’t know. However CO started a few month ago a non stop route between NY and HongKong over the pole.

Do US/Canada-Russia bound airlines fly over the Arctic?

No major airline, as far as i know, flies across the Antarctic

http://www.avweb.com/news/features/187317-1.html

Afaik the only commercial route touching Antarctica is Auckland <> Buenos Aires.

This here is a map of ETOPS 120/180.

There is no option than divert to the closest (=far) airport.

So if you’ve got smoke in the cabin or sick passengers 7 hours away from nearest tarmac, you’re in 4 the long haul?

Nothing can happen in a case of a serious emergency. Eventually the aircraft can land earlier while continuing it’s route. That’s the only solution.
There are a few airfields in Antarctica, but I don’t think they are long enough to handle an A340 or 747.