U.S. air force flight to Antarctica turns back after space activity warning

A Globemaster III from the 304th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron taxis at Phoenix Field at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, on February 4, 2023. (Credit: Senior Chief Petty Officer RJ St/Pacific Air Forces via CNN Newsource)

A U.S. air force flight bound for Antarctica returned to New Zealand after a warning about “potentially hazardous” space activity, according to New Zealand authorities.

A spokesperson for New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the agency was aware the U.S. air force flight from Christchurch turned around following a warning it issued, known as a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen).

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

In a follow-up statement Wednesday, CAA said it was made aware by the Russian air traffic agency 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-kilometre area which is one of the largest airspaces in the world.

CNN has reached out to the U.S. air force, the U.S. Antarctic Program and the Russian State Air Traffic Management Corporation.

Flight tracking site Flightradar24 shows a U.S. military C-17 Globemaster III departed Christchurch Airport around 9 a.m. local time Tuesday headed south, using the call sign ICE28. It returned to Christchurch just before 11:30 a.m., roughly 150 minutes later.

The flight was scheduled during the annual Winter Fly-in (WINFLY) period, during which flights resume between Christchurch and the U.S. Antarctic research base, McMurdo Station, and New Zealand’s Scott Base in Antarctica – a busy period for transporting staff, equipment and supplies ahead of the summer research season.

“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 in its Wednesday statement.

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