Pilot always intended to land at Scott Base, say authorities

11.45am

An Australian pilot stranded with his home-built aircraft in Antarctica has been slammed as irresponsible and ill-prepared.

Jon Johanson left Invercargill on Sunday, saying he intended to fly over the South Pole in his home-built fixed-wing plane on the way to Argentina.

However, he claimed strong head winds meant he used more fuel than anticipated and, had he continued to Argentina, he would have run out of fuel with an hour's flying left.

He landed at the US-NZ McMurdo-Scott base but both American and New Zealand authorities refused to supply him with the 400 litres of fuel he needed to get back to New Zealand.

New Zealand authorities have offered to fly him and his aircraft back to Christchurch.

Today Antarctica New Zealand told NZPA no one knew Mr Johanson was coming and he had done nothing about contingency plans for refuelling or emergency plans, including search and rescue had he been forced down.

Spokeswoman Shelly Peebles said they doubted Mr Johanson ever intended to fly to Argentina but rather had always intended to land at Scott Base.

She said American and New Zealand authorities were being painted in a bad light but Mr Johanson had taken a very irresponsible approach.

She said he filed a flight plan just before he left but kept his South Pole flight plan a secret because he knew both American and New Zealand authorities would have stopped it.

"All our research points to the fact that this guy had one mission in mind and that was to fly over the South Pole.

"He abdicated complete personal responsibility for any kind of contingency plan or consideration of how he was going to get back with limited fuel.

"He would have jeopardised the lives of Americans and New Zealanders who would have had to go out on a search and rescue mission for him.

"He made his plans by himself but we are offering him a way home from a predicament he could have avoided," Ms Peebles said.

Ms Peebles said they believed Mr Johanson knew he would not have enough fuel to get to Argentina well before he reached McMurdo and in plenty of time for him to have turned back to New Zealand.

"He made the call that he did not have enough fuel to get to Argentina before he hit McMurdo.

"He should have turned around and gone back to Invercargill," Ms Peebles said.

Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer, who is due to meet his New Zealand counterpart Phil Goff in the Marlborough Sounds tomorrow, said Mr Johanson should get the fuel.

"The ideal solution would be if the American and New Zealanders together who have joint responsibility for the McMurdo station, would provide fuel for the aircraft, which would be in the vicinity of 300-400 litres, so Jon Johanson could fly back to New Zealand," he told National Radio today.

However, Antarctica New Zealand chief executive Lou Sanson said the Americans had already refused to supply the fuel and for New Zealand to buy it and sell it to Mr Johanson "wouldn't be a good situation and we support the US policy."

He said no one in Antarctica knew Mr Johanson was coming and he had made no contingency or emergency plans.

"He set off on a 33-hour flight with only two hours' contingency (fuel reserve) across the windiest continent on earth. It is not realistic to put other country's lives at risk in rescue operations that go with this type of operation."

He said anyone going to the Antarctic should be self-sufficient with full contingency plans.

"He went beyond the point of safe return and just kept on flying," Mr Sanson said.

Mr Johanson's partner, Sue Ball, said today he had always intended to go to Argentina and had never intended to land at McMurdo.

She said they checked and double-checked the fuel consumption to have a satisfactory reserve for all reasonable contingencies. She said they had professional weather forecasting but the winds he hit were "absolutely not forecast".

"He would not have set off had those conditions been known but as an Antarctic expert said to me 'you can never account for the A factor and sometimes it catches you' -- the A factor being the Antarctic factor," she told National Radio.

She said both she and Mr Johanson were "asking a great big favour" by asking for the fuel.

"He is really, really sorry he has had to land there. It was not in the plan at all but it has happened and we are just asking for him to buy 400 litres of fuel," she said.

"We are asking if they could please help but I think what has happened with this is a very clear message to other people: 'do not do this'," she said.

- NZPA