I dare anyone to tell me that this flight isn’t ridiculously cool.
Continue reading: Qantas Operates 9,100+ Mile Flight Over Antarctica
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Awesome! And I agree - these passengers got a way better deal than the so-called Antarctic scenic flights. Does anyone have any ETOPS information for this flight?
How cool would it have been to be on that flight? Chance of a lifetime! I wouldn't have looked out for polar bears though since they aren't native to Antarctica.
Yes, they will, but they are all Australian citizens or permanent residents who want to come home. They knew what they were signing up for. And it's not in a hotel room, the quarantine centre there has cabins with space between them. Still not fun, but not claustrophobic.
Any idea why Darwin and not SYD/MEL which are significantly nearer? Can't passengers connect domestically?
The route would be more northern and this less interesting.
I'm also surprised they don't need a quad jet. AFAIK 787 had ETOPS 330, but are there any diversion airports near Antarctica?
Repatriation flights go to the place where the pax will go into quarantine, and Darwin has a big quarantine centre. Passengers have to quarantine in their port of arrival and can only continue to their final destination after their 14 days.
The only four engine jets Qantas has are its A380s and they are grounded at the moment, and they don't have the range as far as I know. I have no idea what diversion airfields they would have had. Rio Gallegos in Argentina, Tahiti and New Zealand perhaps? I'm guessing.
QF has been operating Heathrow to both Darwin and Perth multiple times a month recently.
@MikeC. I guess if there was a serious need to land at an all costs situation, the ice runway at McMurdo station could work. They regularly land large Lockheed transport/cargo planes there. And an A-319 once landed there for a medical emergency. I'm sure this would be under absolutely dire circumstances - but it's an option I guess. Would be the coolest diversion imaginable!
@Stuart. Yes, cool in all senses of the word! Australia also has an ice runway, I think at Casey Station, and the Antarctic Division operates an A319 there from Hobart. The RAAF has also flown C-130s to Antarctica.
AFAIK a 767 had landed in Antarctica, so it's not far from a 787.
However:
1. The 767 was especially prepared.
2. Landing is one thing, providing food and warmth for passengers is another.
I'm sure there are strict requirements regarding what's a viable diversion airport. But with ETOPS 330 it's possible that they were always within reach of another continent.
If I remember correctly until March 2020 there were regular flights from Santiago and Buenos Aires, to Wellington, Melbourne and Sidney, that used a similar flight path.
Because of ETPOS it couldn't take the shortest route which would have taken it much closer to the pole. Easter Island, Muraroa in French Polynesia, Wellington NZ, Hobart TAS.
Qantas Kicks Off 100-Plane Order Worth More Than $9 Billion https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-05/qantas-kicks-off-100-plane-order-worth-more-than-9-billion
Did Alan Joyce do this flight? And if so, did he have someone sitting on both sides of him. Did Alan eat coach food.
Buenos Aires hasn’t been for a while, but yes, Santiago to Auckland Melbourne and Sydney was up to a daily flight on LATAM/Qantas. But as Darwin is much further north and west, the great circle route was much further south on this flight. Not over Antarctic continent, but Occasionally pax could see ice on those older flights in winter though.
I flew SYD-JNB one time (it was a new route. A 747 only partially loaded due to weight restriction, I believe the upstairs was closed). It was a day flight so I remember flying along the coast of Antarctica for about an hour, and it was gorgeous - from high up.
The old Qantas Syd>BA and return on 747's went south enough to see ice (during the day on the return), but not land - great views across the Andes as well!
You need to trace this route on a proper world globe than a flat map for it to make any sense.
Also there is probably a requirement to overfly some land component rather than an unbroken expanse of ocean.
Wasn't the Darwin quarantine center set up so that direct flights from Europe could be operated, therefore avoiding potentially complicated and changing transit rules in intermediate countries? Surely, Sydney and/or Melbourne would have sufficient hotel capacity to handle quarantines for a flight coming from the other direction. Since the distance is shorter and most of the passengers were probably traveling to one of those two cities anyway, it still seems to me that flying to MEL/SYD would have made more sense. That is unless hotel quarantines are for some reason no longer an option and there's something that necessitates using the Darwin facility (but then why would commercial passenger flights still be operating into other cities at all?)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-15/howard-springs-quarantine-facilities-in-other-states-australia/13058438 this explains a little about why Howard Springs, the Quarantine Centre near Darwin, is used. Basically well spaced rooms, no shared ventilation systems and distant from densely populated urban areas, so less risk of community transmission from staff working there.
-75 degrees?
Isn't already that cold up at 33.000 feet? So do you really think to scare someone with that number?
I would think the experience by passengers would have been all over the internet. Not only returning home but in a special reconnocence flight taking a unique and somewhat controversial route with views we would all be curious about.
How many in the flight? None of them blogged about it or was interviewed or posted pics to Facebook?
Was there tension, anticipation, an eerie quiet? Or comradere and celebration? Masks and distancing dampening the frosty detour? or smiling eyes and a 'no worries' atmosphere?
How was the hospitality? Quantas staff must have volunteered for such a high profile and super long flight.
Even the bittersweet arrival in Darwin, which was in itself a first for most, if not all, I'd say. Followed by a long 2 weeks of isolation, not unlike a psychology experiment testing mental stability/resilience. Not to mention obedience/ compliance. The feeling of being so near, yet so far.
And regardless of what has come to light since, at the time, I'm guessing many of them were frightened and anxious to see loved ones. Some may even have lost someone or have someone close experiencing illness.
Out of all that potential for an entertaining, informative and thoughtful piece, there's nothing? Or have first hand accounts emerged since?
If nothing, then I'm even more curious.
My cousin is a Quantas ship captain based in Brazil, London and Melbourne. I will have to ask him about it.