Thursday, December 11, 2003

Fly the friendly skies

Australian pilot Jon Johanson, the first person to fly a home-built single-engine plane over the South Pole (he has also flown the plane around the world three times, and over the north pole), was forced to land his plane at a US base when strong headwinds ate up his fuel reserves.

The Americans at McMurdo base and a nearby New Zealand base refuse to sell him fuel, saying they "do not want to encourage tourism in the Antarctic".

You can read about Jon's flights at his webpage.