First plane of the austral summer arrives at the South Pole

The first plane of the 2019-2020 austral summer has arrived at the South Pole. A Basler aircraft landed briefly for 30 minutes at 90° South, after a six hour flight from Rothera Station, having previously flown the Drake Passage from Punta Arenas, Chile. The aircraft brought the first fresh fruit winter-over personnel had seen in eight months: apples, oranges and avocados from Chile!

After the brief refueling stop, the aircraft took off for McMurdo, 1360 km away.