There are some 68,000 commercial flight routes around the world that connect up to 10,000 different airports. A large part of these air connections are found in large cities, especially in the eastern United States, eastern Asia and, above all, in Europe.
However, There are hardly any flights that fly over Antarcticadespite increasingly advanced technology in aviation. A curious fact that arouses great interest and an airplane pilot wanted to explain.
In a video published on her TikTok account (@maritarx), where she has more than a million followers, Marita wanted to explain the reasons why there are practically no commercial flights that cross the frozen continent. «You may be wondering ‘What if we went back through the North Pole, Why don’t we fly over the South Pole?‘”, he begins by saying.
The reason there are no flights through Antarctica
The airline pilot explains that there are hardly any commercial flights that fly over Antarctica for different reasons. The first of them is related to the thickness of the atmosphere. «The layers of the atmosphere are not the same throughout the planet. Due to the rotation of the planet, in the equatorial part they are thicker than in the polar part,” says Marita.
The thickness of the atmosphere has a direct effect on people’s health, since it is responsible for protecting us from the sun’s radiation. «If planes fly through the troposphere, but it is very thin, we are going to receive more radiation», explains the ‘tiktoker’.
In fact, Marita explains, throughout her life, An airplane pilot “receives more radiation than a person who works in a nuclear power plant”. “We have to take that into account and try not to expose pilots to radiation,” he says.
The second factor that explains why there are no commercial flights that fly over the South Pole is that “the plane and ice are very bad friends, especially fuel” and, in the event of a setback, “there are no emergency airports”.
«We have to understand that the land mass of our planet is almost all on the same side of the planet. The Pacific, for example, covers half the planet,” the pilot continues, explaining that in Antarctica “flights are avoided because there are no towers to be in contact with humans. If something happens, it’s not that no one is there, it’s that no one finds out.».
Furthermore, Marita warns: «The same thing from Argentina to Australia flying over Antarctica is a super fast flightbut it’s not going to be comfortable, it’s going to be turbulent». And, he explains, it is one of the most extreme weather zones on the planet: “No company is going to commit to doing a route there.”
Despite all the inconveniences of flying over this point on the planet, the airline pilot emphasizes that it’s not illegal do it. However, such a flight will mean paying a fairly high amount. “There is private companies that, for the modest price of 15,000 euros“They take you for a walk,” he says.
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