Closing in on the Pole

Near the North Pole- April 17, 2007 – Two English pilots are nearing the North Pole in their around-the-world voyage, but poor weather is delaying their efforts. Jennifer Murray, 66, and Colin Bodill, 55, hope to land in the record books for flying around the world in their Bell 407 helicopter via the South and North Poles. After departing from Fort Worth, Texas in on Dec. 5, 2006, they reached the South Pole on Jan. 7, 2007. But weather is making the trip to the North Pole a little frustrating. Murray writes on their blog, “We need a pretty good window for this next hop as we have to be able to keep on the move for nearly nine hours. That could be a little longer as we have been asked if we could drop off some oatmeal to a fellow Brit, Rosie Stancer, who is walking solo to the Pole!” But they don’t plan to stay long at the North Pole. “A couple of circuits around the Geographic North Pole, a landing, waving of flags, taking of photos and onwards to the Russian Base camp some 60 miles away on the other side,” Murray wrote. “This is of course, all ‘best case scenario.’ There could well be intervals spent sitting on creaking ice waiting for a fog bank to go through or lift and whether to keep the engine running, or shut down and for how long? And will the engine start again – these are all the things I start thinking about as I lie in bed at night – not healthy!” When they reach the North Pole, Murray and Bodill will have completed nearly 27,000 nautical miles of their 169-day journey. They have 8,500 miles to go before landing back in Fort Worth, Texas in late May. This isn’t the first time the two have tried to fly around the world via the Poles. The team's first attempt at the record failed in 2003 when, 58 days into their journey, their helicopter crashed in whiteout conditions in Antarctica, 120 miles from the nearest camp. Both pilots suffered serious injuries and it took rescue crews 17 hours to reach them. However, one of the highlights of this trip had to be on Jan. 11, 2007, when the two visited the crash site, about 70 miles south of Patriot. While the wreckage was cut up and removed in 2004 and 2005, Murray and Bodill buried a small reminder of their crash — the helicopter’s keys — to mark the site. Where are they now?

Pilots Jennifer Murray and Colin Bodill celebrate reaching the South Pole on their attempt to be the first to fly around the world via the North and South Pole in a helicopter. For More Information Flight Tracker Polar First web site More on Polar First

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