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Munich (dpa) - 40 crew members of the research vessel “Polarstern” returned to Munich on Thursday after more than 14 hours of flight time from the Falkland Islands.
Lufthansa’s Airbus A350-900 arrived at Munich Airport at 1:24 p.m. after its 13,400-kilometer special flight, as the airline reported on Twitter.
As the longest non-stop passenger flight that has ever landed there, the plane was received by the fire brigade with a "water baptism".
The outward flight on Sunday from Hamburg to the Mount Pleasant military base had already set a record.
According to Lufthansa, it was the longest non-stop passenger flight in the company's history with a flight time of 15 hours and 26 minutes over a distance of 13,700 kilometers.
Researchers from the Bremerhaven Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the new crew of the research icebreaker “Polarstern” were on board.
The researchers are to collect long-term data for climate predictions on the ship in the Antarctic Weddell Sea for two months.
According to the AWI, the reason for the unusual journey to Antarctica is the corona pandemic.
Usually the researchers traveled to Antarctica by air via South Africa or Chile.
Scheduled flights are currently out of the question due to the pandemic.
Before departure, the passengers and the Lufthansa crew were in quarantine for two weeks.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210204-99-303769 / 2
Press release AWI
Press release Lufthansa