Military-transport aircraft of Ukraine’s Air Force returned from Greenland to Ukraine. It participated in a joint Ukrainian-Danish operation “Northern Falcon - 2019”, as the press office of Air Force Command reported.
Delivery of the fuel to Danish polar station “Nord” by Ilyushin Il-76 was the main task of the operation.
As it was reported, Serhiy Artemenko, the chief inspector-pilot of the Aviation Administration, led the Ukrainian group this year. Military pilots spent over 100 hours in the air and performed 44 flights from Thule Air Base of the U.S. Air Forces to the Danish polar station “Nord” and backward. They transported over 600 tons of fuel and around 20 tons of another cargo.
“We had performed two flights per day. The conditions of the flight and preparation differ from those in Ukraine. The visibility here is almost always reduced, weather conditions change fast, the number of navigation means is restricted. Maintenance of the aircraft is rather complicated when the temperature is extremely low. It requires a lot of efforts, experience and skills,” he noted.
Artemenko added that this year five representatives of the ground staff and four servicemen of the flight personnel had been involved in the task in Greenland before.
