Flying a four-engine airplane to the most remote place on Earth is a challenge on its own. Doing it with a twin-engine aircraft raises the bar even higher and introduces additional factors that must be considered. The maturity of the A330 airframe/engine combination, together with the robustness of Hi Fly’s procedures, ensure equivalent safety levels. Within our aviation group, we hold the highest level of operational, technical, and organizational robustness for ETOPS. It has been almost 25 years of uninterrupted extended-range operations with twin-engine aircraft in our group.
Simply put, flying a twin-engine aircraft at a distance greater than 60 minutes single engine speed from an adequate airport, calls for procedures with additional requirements concerning the aircraft, its engines, its reliability, the crews, dispatch, and maintenance, all under strict oversight from the authority. We carry enough fuel to cater for different failure scenarios occurring at the most critical point of the route, and make sure Enroute alternate airfields have weather forecasts meeting the more stringent ETOPS dispatch minima.
In the early 2000s, we were the first in Europe—and fourth in the world—to launch A320 ETOPS operations. Today, more than two decades later, A320neo family aircraft routinely cross the Atlantic. As for the A330, we have operated GE, RR, and PW engines in the 200, 300, and 900 variants for more than two decades. We know what ETOPS means the the responsabilities associated with it. Supported by a strong CAMO team and our exceptional group of maintenance engineers, we have flown to virtually every corner of the planet with twin-engine aircraft.
White Desert created conditions at Wolf’s Fang that added an extra layer of comfort for launching a twin-engine aircraft so far south. The presence of an electrical ground power unit and an air starter unit was essential. More than a customer, they are team members—so well integrated with ours that we become one during the season. We could not be prouder of the relationship we have developed with White Desert over the past five years.
The route we followed was the same one used with the A340. That route kept us within 1,255 nm circles from Cape Town and from Wolf’s Fang Runway. This corresponds to three hours of flight time at single-engine speed, which is the maximum permitted distance from an en-route alternate. Those 1,255 nm define our area of operations. The circles overlap enough to allow for route adjustments due to weather or NOTAMs. A SpaceX rocket re-entry (Starlink) was occurring over the Southern Ocean that day, but outside our transit time through that airspace.
Navigation procedures are similar to those used on the A340, and we maintained datalink communications with Johannesburg Oceanic until south of 65°S latitude. We also maintained ACARS exchanges with Lisbon, receiving weather updates and WFR runway conditions, including friction coefficients for each third of the runway, plus data for pads and parking bays. Additional information, such as contrast and horizon conditions, was also provided. Around 200 nm from WFR, we established VHF communication and received fresh updates on every parameter required to ensure the landing would be a non-event.
The low cruise OAT and the fact that we do not refuel in WFR meant we had to monitor fuel temperatures closely. In practice, we never came close to the fuel freeze point, either southbound or northbound.
As with the A340, we carry fuel for both sectors, and when flying south our destination alternate is Cape Town. The immediate challenge is that the route to the alternate is also ETOPS, something that very rarely occurs in regular twin-engine ETOPS operations. When crossing, for example, the Atlantic, the alternate is usually just a short “domestic” hop, often less than 250 nm. In our case, it is 2,500 nm away. In addition to all the usual challenges of an ETOPS flight, we must also consider the extremely remote geography, harsh environment, and the need to carry enough survival gear for everyone on board. We divert back to CPT if the weather at WFR deteriorates. There are also two nearby blue-ice strips – TROL and NOVO – that we could use in an emergency requiring an immediate landing if WFR were unavailable.
In truth, the weather forecasters working with us do an amazing job. Three days before each flight, we hold Zoom calls between all teams to determine whether conditions will be adequate for launch. If the outlook is not as required, we reschedule. One aspect of particular importance is the airfield temperature, as airstrip friction degrades quickly when temperatures rise. That is why we often operate at “night.” Although the sun never sets during the season, it does get low enough in the sky; cooler, denser air flows downhill from the nunataks, increasing in velocity and bringing katabatic winds into the airfield, lowering the temperature by roughly 10 degrees.
On this trip I was supported by a team of highly experienced, exceptionally capable pilots. We were four due to the expected long duty period. This included Captain Antonios Efthymiou, Hi Fly’s current CEO, who had flown with me the first A340 to WFR back in 2021. So were our wives, gently invited by White Desert. In the cabin we had 12 cabin crew members, a team of three engineers, and one ground coordinator. And because this was the first A330 flight to WFR, we were accompanied by a Civil Aviation Inspector from TM-CAD, observing every detail closely. But was that all? Obviously not. Many more people, both at our base and at White Desert’s, played roles just as important to the success of this flight as those of us on board.
It was 23:59 local Antarctica time when we touched down on the ice. Landing weight was 184 tons, and the katabatic winds were just beginning to pick up. The sun’s position was less than ideal, but the glare was not enough to impair a safe landing. We brought the aircraft to a stop in 2,000 meters exactly as planned, made a 180-degree turn at the 2K pad, and a few minutes later shut down the engines in the parking area.
Roughly 3h30m later, we were departing back to CPT. Another non-eventful flight—crew and passengers happy—and already hoping to return soon to the place Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 pilot, once said was the closest thing to outer space he had ever experienced on Earth.
Carlos Mirpuri
Hi Fly Group Vice-Chairman
Flight HFM801/802 Commander
Below is the complete list of all crew members, engineers, support staff, and media personnel who were on board and contributed to the success of this first A330 mission to Antarctica.
CPT Carlos Mirpuri
CPT Antonios Efthymiou
CPT João Esteves
CPT Luiz-Felippe Lauand
SCM Diogo Figueiredo
SCM Catarina Furtado
CC Manley Mthimkhulu
CC Carla Tree
CC Cecilea Jooste
CC Clarise Conradie
CC Eduardo Nitti
CC Fayyaadh Allie
CC Ordino Kok
CC Phoebe Dunn
CC Xolile Mkhize
CC Zamaphisa Mlambo Sthembile
ENG Augusto Rodrigues de Sousa
ENG Humberto Coradinho
ENG Joaquim Faustino
GCR João Ferrão
INP Capt. Joeffrey Farrugia
OBS Aviation correspondent Capt. José Guedes
OBS Aviation contents specialist Pierre Letessier
Photo credits: Pierre Letessier / White Desert
To know more about first A330 in Antarctica click here
To know more about first A340 in Antarctica click here
