{"id":9640,"date":"2019-04-26T04:57:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T04:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/konyukhov.ru\/?p=9640"},"modified":"2019-04-27T05:00:47","modified_gmt":"2019-04-27T05:00:47","slug":"contact-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/konyukhov.ru\/en\/contact-made\/","title":{"rendered":"Contact made!"},"content":{"rendered":"

An aircraft of the Chilean Naval Aviation (Search and Rescue Squadron, Armada de Chile<\/a>) made contact with the rowing boat \u201cAKROS\u201d 460 miles from Cape Horn at the following coordinates: 53\u201945 south and 80\u201900 west. \u00a0The airplane took off from the military base of Punta Arenas (Chile).<\/p>\n

The flight was carried out as part of a patrol of the Southern Ocean region. \u00a0The command of Armada de Chile in Punta Arenas notified Fyodor Konyukhov\u2019s expeditionary headquarters of the planned flight to detect the rowing boat \u201cAKROS\u201d, informed us of the departure time and indicated that the airplane would be in the area in 2.5 hours. \u00a0They asked Fedor to have a white hand flare ready and light it when he hears the sound of an approaching aeroplane. \u00a0The radio is to be tuned to channel 16. \u00a0The flight was carried out by an Embraer 111<\/a> aeroplane.<\/p>\n

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This is how Fedor Konyukhov himself describes this event:<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I heard the sound of an approaching aircraft, an alarm was triggered on board \u2014 a sound alert on the echo responder. \u00a0I climbed onto the deck, heard the sound of an airplane, and a plane suddenly emerged from behind the clouds. \u00a0The weather was cloudy with drizzle. \u00a0The airplane did not notice me from its first approach and flew by. \u00a0As we agreed, I lit a white flare. \u00a0The airplane noticed me on the second lap, turned towards me flying exactly at me with its landing-taxiing lights on.<\/p>\n

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Pilots called me on the radio on channel 16. \u00a0We talked for a few minutes. \u00a0They asked about my state of health, how much food and water I have, and how long would it take for me to reach Cape Horn according to my calculations.<\/p>\n

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All this time the plane circled around the boat, moving away and returning. \u00a0It was good that they sent a fast airplane, as a helicopter would not reach here, Cape Horn is still 460 nautical miles (828 kilometres) away.<\/p>\n