US influencer stranded in Antarctica after landing plane without permission

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/antarctica-ethan-guo-teen-pilot-detained-b2805884.html

by Stratoscope • 12 months ago

73 104 12 months ago

independent.co.uk

blankx32• 12 months ago

http://archive.today/UWC2w

soulofmischief3• 12 months ago

Ethan Guo was hoping to become the youngest person to fly solo to all seven continents

I think a more favorable title is "US pilot stranded in Antarctica after landing plane without permission". They chose the word "influencer" for a reason, even though it was a pilot trying to set a record that happened to film himself. He's even flying to raise funds for cancer research.

Too bad he lied to ground control, what a great way to lose your license, prison aside.

edit: to answer some of the replies, I'm just concerned with the implicit patronization that media applies to anyone who has a hobby/career but also makes money off of publicizing it.

bachmeier• 12 months ago

They chose the word "influencer" for a reason

And that reason is his 600K followers on TikTok.

CGMthrowaway2• 11 months ago

Which could describe tens of thousands of people posting to tiktok. I know someone who got to half a million without even trying.

aredox3• 12 months ago

He's even flying to raise funds for cancer research.

He is even using sick kids as a cover for his behavior.

Honestly if he isn't a manipulative psychopath, he is well on his way to become one.

jameslk2• 12 months ago

What differentiates a person who’s doing a stunt to raise money for a charitable cause and a person who is “using sick kids as cover” for their behavior?

exabrial• 12 months ago

because thats exactly what he is?

jncfhnb2• 12 months ago

He's even flying to raise funds for cancer research.

The best line from the Lorax film is in this song where he’s trying to put a positive spin on his aggressive commercialization and they say “a portion of proceeds goes to charity”!

phkahler2• 12 months ago

> “a portion of proceeds goes to charity”!

Right! How much does this world tour cost vs how much he brings in vs how much goes to cancer research?

slumberlust• 11 months ago

You might enjoy this classic: https://youtu.be/kTdScE3Rqh8

pjc50• 12 months ago

This incident reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust and his landing in Red Square. A risky thing to do at a time when air defences were very much live, and also incredibly risky to land in a public square, but he made it and only spent a few months in prison.

keybored2• 12 months ago

Thousands of people have pursued their dreams or goals while doing-it-to-raise-funds-for-good-cause. I don’t really get it... people can just do whatever and put an Other People Are Helping Cure Cancer sticker on it. Like, what? What does this stunt have to do with cancer?

xg15• 11 months ago

He is an influencer and a pilot. Both things are relevant to the story.

soulofmischief3• 11 months ago

And yet the headline cherry-picked one of them.

calmbonsai• 11 months ago

I concur with the consequences and the perverse incentives involved, but this goes with the general advice of "If you're going to break the law, either do so extremely publicly or extremely privately."

The really sad thing here is I have little doubt this could've been arranged legally given the respective parties and interests involved, but Mr. Guo chose to be selfish and foolhardy by not abiding by anyone else's timeline or interests. He deserves all the punishment and derision coming his way.

jart3• 11 months ago

They probably left him no choice but to lie.

They're not a very good government.

dragonwriter7• 11 months ago

They probably left him no choice but to lie

Since the whole flight was a choice, he obviously had the choice not to lie.

tantalor• 12 months ago

"Stranded" implies he is physically stuck, but the article contradicts itself on several points.

"I remain in Antarctica awaiting approval for my departure flight"
He was not forced to stay there, only to remain in Chilean territory
He must also leave the country as soon as conditions allow
Guo’s plane “does not have the capabilities to make a flight”

As a reader, it's hard to understand exactly what is happening. This is very poor reporting.

The most interesting detail in buried in the last paragraph:

The prosecutor’s office said Guo must also pay all costs for his “aircraft security and personal maintenance” during his stay at the military facility. He also needs to cover all expenses for his return.

So the real reason he is "stranded" is extortion.

kayodelycaon4• 12 months ago

I don't think it classifies as extortion when it's a plea deal to avoid being prosecuted for breaking multiple laws and potentially going to jail.

yieldcrv2• 12 months ago

the only difference between extortion and a fine is “due process”

remember, sometimes the mob has better rates

aredox3• 12 months ago

Extorsion?

He lied about his flight plan, didn't ask for authorization to land on a remote military base, endangered himself and others, all this for personal aggrandizement (and he is using kids with cancer to cover for his ego trip)

EndsOfnversion• 12 months ago

After entering Chilean territory illegally perhaps they should send him to killer whale Alcatraz?

kayodelycaon4• 12 months ago

Impound his plane and tell him to walk home. /s

atonse• 12 months ago

Nah, not extortion. All self-inflicted idiocy. He's caused headaches for all these places, he should pay for the headaches.

metalman• 12 months ago

He is very much stranded, as a civilian on a military base, they are just chucking all procedure and rules out, he does not officialy exist, but gets fed and a bed, and razzed and razzed and razzed, sounds like he held up, though it will likely be impossible for him to fly out as it would need special attention to get the plane running if it was left to freeze solid, and departure clearance will have to come from the minister in charge and then he could end up waiting for 6 months for good weather..... guy did a polar circumnavigation in a RV kitplane, very serious extended range

netsharc4• 11 months ago

I'd have massive schadenfreude if red tape prevents him from leaving on his plane. "You need fuel? Oh we have plenty here, but as military we can't just give you fuel, your government needs to buy it from our government who'll talk down the chain of command to us.".

"You want to fly? Your violation of the airspace laws means you're not allowed to use Chilean airspace anymore... sorry Gringo."

LeifCarrotson• 12 months ago

Guo’s plane “does not have the capabilities to make a flight”
The prosecutor’s office said Guo must also pay all costs for his “aircraft security and personal maintenance” during his stay at the military facility. He also needs to cover all expenses for his return.

They may be unwilling or unable to sell him 60 gallons of 100LL avgas. It's not like he's just pulling up to the FBO at a local airstrip. There are thousands of locations across the country and across the world where aviators can just land, taxi to a tiedown and fuel up, and take off...the Chilean military base in Antarctica is not one of those places.

Do you think the base has some outdoor tiedown locations in the Antarctic winter, or keeps hangar space available for recreational pilots? Are they going to requisition fuel from the mainland, or dip into their supplies? They may be looking at the weather and saying that he can't take off without deicing and engine temp control provisions that his Cessna 182 does not have. He needs to fly some 800 miles in an aircraft with about 1000 miles of range into Antarctic winter weather, he only has a few hours of daylight per day which may not be enough to fly VFR from Antarctica to Chile, depending on the winds through the notorious Drake Passage.

From the perspective of the base commander, there's a very young man (almost still a child) who is asking to buy the military's fuel as if it were for sale and asking him to change flight schedules and get permission from the tower to unwisely take off and put himself into a potentially lethal situation. The commander has probably refused the same requests from trainees with inadequate hours or certifications, or whose aircraft were not rated for the weather at the moment, and has managed to keep hundreds of his charges alive in a very hostile environment. "Teenager stranded at base" is not a headline he wants to publish, but "Teenager lost in Drake Passage after receiving fuel and takeoff clearance at base" is far, far worse.

pityJuke• 12 months ago

So, the critical update here is that Chile are agreeing to letting him leave, provided he donates $30k to charity.

That is extremely generous of them, considering what appears to have been the insanity of his stunt.

cess11• 12 months ago

Seems his intention was to get people to donate a million US dollars for him to give to charity.

JumpCrisscross7• 12 months ago

Chile are agreeing to letting him leave, provided he donates $30k to charity

“The prosecutor’s office said Guo must also pay all costs for his ‘aircraft security and personal maintenance’ during his stay at the military facility. He also needs to cover all expenses for his return.” So possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars more.

There is also a good chance the FAA revokes his pilot’s license.

scotty7911• 12 months ago

It's kind of weird that even though air and flying is associated with ultimate dreamlike freedom it is regulated so stringently even in places where there are basically no humans, no infrastructure, barely even any nature to protect

tim333• 11 months ago

insanity of his stunt

He flew from one airport to another airport without permission of the local bureaucracies? I mean you get fined for breaking the rules but it doesn't seem that insane.

insane_dreamer• 11 months ago

another airport

not just another airport , a _military_ airport

good luck trying that in the US

kayodelycaon4• 12 months ago

Filing a false flight plan and landing at a South American military base in Antarctica in a completely inadequate plane, without authorization, is a bold move.

He's lucky it was just expensive.

But he did get the publicity he was looking for.

nilamo• 12 months ago

The phrasing of this is very funny to me. How dare he land without permission, he should have flown circles until his fuel ran out and he crashed! /s

bilekas• 12 months ago

Or he shouldn't have changed his flight plan without letting the ATC know, these things cause massive headaches for everyone else. ATC can't have regular service running when there's a rogue flight in the air.

He's lucky he is getting off with a slap on the wrist basically. The entitlement some people have is bewildering.

There are many ways to get approval for a flight to the Antarctic. Do it the right way.

scotty7911• 12 months ago

I bet there's huge air traffic in Antarctic. He surely inconvenienced many busy penguins.

SketchySeaBeast2• 12 months ago

Imagine a foreign small aircraft landing on an American air base without permission.

flufluflufluffy• 12 months ago

It would definitely be blown to bits before ever getting the chance to land if there was no response from the pilot lol

mminer237• 12 months ago

It's happened many times. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5YGdNJqbO0

netsharc4• 12 months ago

Searching for his name shows he's been there since June, and that his original flight plan was just to fly over Puntas Arenas, which is about 1240 km away from the airbase he ended up at.

I wish there's a way to punish lawyers (and defendants) who deliberately lie.

hydrogen7800• 12 months ago

Avweb [0] has a bit more concise report of the story:

On June 28, Chilean prosecutors allege that Guo submitted a false flight plan at Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Airport in Punta Arenas, indicating he would fly over the city. However, authorities claim he deviated from this plan without notification, continuing toward Antarctica and landing at Lieutenant Rodolfo Marsh Base in Chilean Antarctic territory.
Prosecutors allege that Guo violated “multiple national and international regulations” by altering his flight path without prior approval and touching down on a portion of Antarctica claimed by Chile.

Also, this is a 675 nm (1250 km) trip, with 529 nm (980 km) over open ocean during the southern winter. [1] Still within range of a 182, but yikes.

[0]https://avweb.com/aviation-news/teen-pilot-detained-in-antar...

[1]https://skyvector.com/?ll=-62.19079798502279,-58.98632811745...

justin662• 11 months ago

Doing this in a single-engine Cessna was gutsy.

My question for people who know about this stuff: how hard would it have been to get permission to land in Antarctica?

tengbretson• 12 months ago

Damn. The president of Antarctica had to have been livid.

JumpCrisscross7• 12 months ago

Looks like Guo’s private pilot license is still active [1].

(I’ve flagged the CNN article [2] to the FAA.)

[1] https://amsrvs.registry.faa.gov/airmeninquiry/Main.aspx

[2] https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/02/americas/us-teen-ethan-gu...

ultrarunner• 11 months ago

By “flagged” do you mean to say that you’ve reported him to the FAA?

JumpCrisscross7• 11 months ago

you’ve reported him to the FAA?

Yes.

bpodgursky• 12 months ago

touching down on a portion of Antarctica claimed by Chile

It is worth pointing out that no other nation acknowledges Chile's claim to this part of Antarctica. And in fact, several other countries claim the same territory.

It doesn't make landing there a good idea, but it's not really an invasion of sovereign Chilean territory in a sane way. Chile claims an enormous portion of Antarctica which they exert absolutely 0 sovereignty over in practice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_Antarctic_Territory. In fact, two of the three US antarctic bases (Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and Palmer station) are in their claimed territory, and I can assure you that US researchers do not ask Chile's permission to enter and leave.

You can call this a dumb stunt without giving credence to the goofy south american land claims Chile and Argentina are prone to making.

bluGill2• 12 months ago

He landed near/at a Chile's base and is in Chile's custody. For purposes of this the claim is valid since Chile is able to enforce it and nobody else will oppose them doing so.

In general you are correct the claim isn't recognized, but it doesn't apply here.

throwway1203853• 12 months ago

He overflew Chile proper on his way into their territorial claims. So call it what you will but he filed a false flight plan with their regulatory body and he should face some consequences for it. The fact that his destination is in disputed territory doesn't mitigate any of that. The Chilean military and civilian bodies are being very lenient.

ryandrake2• 12 months ago

Reminds me of that guy[1][2] a few years ago who jumped out of his running airplane deliberately staging its crash. I guess I just don't understand the YouTube economy. How are these stunts cost effective? This probably means no more flying ever for both of these "influencer" guys. So, what's their plan after they get caught and lose their license and/or do time in prison?

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31104691

2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35909203

cwmma• 12 months ago

You're over thinking this, their plan is to not be caught.

phkahler2• 12 months ago

I think the question is how one recoups the cost of crashing a plane. I know youtubers who make 5 to 6 figures, but they have to keep posting content that gets watched. One "crash my plane" video doesn't seem like a big money maker.

kayodelycaon4• 11 months ago

Do something illegal and post it to the internet for everyone to see…

Brilliant plan.

mikeocool• 12 months ago

If you're going to illegally fly to Antarctica, probably makes sense to wait until the summer time?

The US bases on the continent have no flights in or out between mid-February and late October.

dieg0• 12 months ago

Entitled US influencer also learns that is it not a good idea flying to Antarctica in the middle of winter. Glad he didn't endanger anybody else, that is also a miracle.

jmclnx• 11 months ago

What was he thinking :)

But seeing teenagers do not think, I believe the court made the correct decision. Hopefully he can meet the court's requirements and is able to leave safely.

US influencer stranded in Antarctica after landing plane without permission

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