MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands-Munich, Lufthansa completes record-breaking flight
Last Sunday, 31 January, the 16-member crew led by Flight Captain Rolf Uzat departed on the longest nonstop flight in the history of Lufthansa 
At Munich airport the Airbus A350-900 was greeted by the fire department with a water salute. Yesterday at 1:24 pm the crew of the Lufthansa record-breaking flight received a very warm “welcome back” upon their return in Germany. After landing at Munich Airport, the Airbus A350-900 was greeted by the fire department with a water salute.
The Lufthansa crew was welcomed by Stefan Kreuzpaintner, Lufthansa Chief Commercial Officer & Hub Manager Munich, along with the CEO of the airport, Jost Lammers.
Last Sunday, 31 January, the 16-member crew led by Flight Captain Rolf Uzat departed on the longest nonstop flight in the history of Lufthansa. The flight time from Hamburg to the Mount Pleasant military base on the Falkland Islands took exactly 15:26 hours for the 13,700-kilometer route.
Yesterday’s return flight was another record-breaker: The Airbus A350-900 “Braun-schweig” completed the 13,400-kilometer route in 14:03 hours.
In the history of Munich Airport, this was the first aircraft to ever land after operating such a long distance without having a stopover. On board today’s special flight were 40 passengers from the crew of the research vessel “Polarstern”, who flew back home on behalf of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven (Germany).
Because the hygiene requirements for this flight were extremely strict, this round-trip will go down in the history of Lufthansa: The passengers and crew were required to quarantine for two weeks before this flight in a hotel in Bremerhaven. The entire duty trip took a total of 20 days for the crew; no other crew had recently completed more duty days coherently.
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Read all commentsThe little guys deep in the south atlantic once again played an historical part in being the gateway to Antartica.
Feb 05th, 2021 - 10:14 am +5Hosting this german planned non stop flight to bring scientists to catch their research ship Poletstern already waiting at here on the islands for them.
Then they repeated this event by returning non stop back to Germany .
This was a political win for the islands proving that the Falkland islands is still the major gateway to the Antartic.
But most importantly we were chosen over our nearest neighbour because our administration have managed a very well run covid 19 campaign making us the safest place to conduct this venture.
Very proud to have Germany choose this little remote place as an important hub and looking forward to their return when they will bring the scientist's back home again in a couple of months time.
Argentina has not been to happy about this event taking place given their stance of blocking our islands from commercial business.
They have a lit to learn about us islanders who as we can prove time and again we have what it takes to run our own affairs.
Congratulations to everyone who made this first historic flight from germany possible. From the best little country in the world.
Think. What has that got to do with the scientific mission. Absolutely nothing.
Feb 06th, 2021 - 01:03 am +1The fishing companies are very aware of the covid getting on their ships and unlike some very developed countries our local administration have a very good system for detecting and containing this virus.
But the most important point being made is that inspite of the attempt by Argentina to try and tell the world that flight could only happen on their say so proved once again to be nothing more than political propaganda.
The Falkland Islanders most definitely made a new friend in Germany and long may it continue. Just as I hope it does with future EU countries who actually value what we do in trade for them.
There is a saying. Hurdles are often put in your path to encourage you to jump over them. we islanders are very good at doing that. We have had years of practice from all the attempts by our close neighbours who are hell bent on stopping us. As yet that has not happened and the rest of the world is starting to take us more seriously because they know that trading with us is a safer bet than trading with a country that has a failed economy.
Just love being a real Falkland Islander in these times.
Of course Think you would want to divert the subject from a total falkland island success story.
Feb 06th, 2021 - 11:23 am +1We are better informed than you think about our fishing fleet and covid.
One has to ask ones self why would these vessels even come to the islands this year to fish. EU tariffs and risk from covid you would think would stop them but it has not because there is good working practice in place and as yet still a EU market for our produce .
So get your facts right before making such remarks. Mind you everything coming out I Argentina has to be treated with caution because of the fact their people are by and larged controlled by deception.
It is great to see the Jiggers coming into the town for their Falkland Islands licences. Showing the world they are prepared to do business with us.
Long will it continue as well.
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