Twin-Otter Antarctic stopover

A Twin-Otter aircraft has a stopover for refuelling half-way to the Concordia research station in Antarctica. The airport is nothing more than a strip of cleared snow and a stockpile of fuel barrels.

From Antarctic coast it is 1200 km to Concordia. Personnel, small equipment and fresh produce are transported in a twin-propeller plane organised by the Italian PNRA Antarctic programme. The aircraft has to be maintained meticulously because it flies at altitudes where the air pressure is a third less than at sea level, in extreme cold weather.