ICED OUT

Influencer Pilot Speaks Out on His ‘Lonely’ Isolation After Getting Stuck in Antarctica

Ethan Guo’s dream of flying to all seven continents became turbulent when he was accused of filing a false flight plan.

A young American influencer pilot spoke out about his “lonely” existence after getting trapped in Antarctica for weeks over a claim that he submitted a false flight plan. Ethan Guo has been stuck at a Chilean air force barracks on King George Island since June 28 after he allegedly landed on the island without authorization. “It’s very hard and it’s really isolating and lonely,” the 20-year-old, who has 1.4million followers on Instagram, told The New York Times. “That means, like solitude—like, you know, confined solitude,” claiming too that he has barely gone outside and has lost 20 pounds on a diet of lentil soup and pasta. Guo’s ordeal is part of his odyssey to fly solo to all seven continents and raise $1 million for cancer research. His plan on June 28 was to reach Ushuaia, Argentina, but Guo claims that emergency conditions, resulting from malfunctioning navigation instruments and diminished airspeed, meant he had to put the plane down wherever he could. Authorities in Chile said he had submitted a “false flight plan,” but the charges were dropped this week. Chile’s aviation authority has said that he is free to leave as soon as he can finance a trip on a ship or a plane—but he’s not allowed to fly his own plane off the island over concerns that it has enough fuel to reach Punta Arenas in southern Chile.