US Air Force flight to Antarctica turns back after ‘hazardous’ space activity warning

By Berk Kutay Gokmen

ISTANBUL (AA) - A US Air Force flight bound for Antarctica returned to New Zealand after a warning about “potentially hazardous” space activity, New Zealand authorities told CNN on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it knew the US Air Force flight from Christchurch had turned around after receiving a warning issued by the agency through a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen).

The space activity was reported to the CAA by Russia’s State Air Traffic Management Corporation, “resulting in the issuance of a NOTAM advising pilots of the hazard,” the CAA said Tuesday.

In a follow-up statement Wednesday, the CAA said Russia’s air traffic agency had informed it of a planned missile launch and “associated potential hazard to international airspace, within New Zealand’s Oceanic Flight Information Region (FIR),” a 30-million-square-kilometer (11.6-square mile) area and one of the world’s largest airspaces.

“We put in place a danger area and issued a NOTAM to alert aircraft operators to the potential hazard. This does not prevent aircraft from flying through the area, operators make their decisions based on the information available,” CAA said Wednesday.

“Much of our Oceanic FIR is over international waters, where we have limited control over activities,” it added, referring to Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea airspace where it is responsible for aircraft flying at certain altitudes.

The flight was scheduled during the annual Winter Fly-in (WINFLY), when flights resume between Christchurch and the US Antarctic research base, McMurdo Station, and New Zealand’s Scott Base in Antarctica.