US influencer stranded in Antarctica after landing plane without permission

> They chose the word "influencer" for a reason

And that reason is his 600K followers on TikTok.

> He's even flying to raise funds for cancer research.

The best line from the Lorax film is in this song where he’s trying to put a positive spin on his aggressive commercialization and they say “a portion of proceeds goes to charity”!

I concur with the consequences and the perverse incentives involved, but this goes with the general advice of "If you're going to break the law, either do so extremely publicly or extremely privately."

The really sad thing here is I have little doubt this could've been arranged legally given the respective parties and interests involved, but Mr. Guo chose to be selfish and foolhardy by not abiding by anyone else's timeline or interests. He deserves all the punishment and derision coming his way.

This incident reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust and his landing in Red Square. A risky thing to do at a time when air defences were very much live, and also incredibly risky to land in a public square, but he made it and only spent a few months in prison.

He is an influencer and a pilot. Both things are relevant to the story.

because thats exactly what he is?

Thousands of people have pursued their dreams or goals while doing-it-to-raise-funds-for-good-cause. I don’t really get it... people can just do whatever and put an Other People Are Helping Cure Cancer sticker on it. Like, what? What does this stunt have to do with cancer?

>He's even flying to raise funds for cancer research.

He is even using sick kids as a cover for his behavior.

Honestly if he isn't a manipulative psychopath, he is well on his way to become one.

> Chile are agreeing to letting him leave, provided he donates $30k to charity

“The prosecutor’s office said Guo must also pay all costs for his ‘aircraft security and personal maintenance’ during his stay at the military facility. He also needs to cover all expenses for his return.” So possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars more.

There is also a good chance the FAA revokes his pilot’s license.

Seems his intention was to get people to donate a million US dollars for him to give to charity.

By “flagged” do you mean to say that you’ve reported him to the FAA?

You're over thinking this, their plan is to not be caught.

He overflew Chile proper on his way into their territorial claims. So call it what you will but he filed a false flight plan with their regulatory body and he should face some consequences for it. The fact that his destination is in disputed territory doesn't mitigate any of that. The Chilean military and civilian bodies are being very lenient.

He landed near/at a Chile's base and is in Chile's custody. For purposes of this the claim is valid since Chile is able to enforce it and nobody else will oppose them doing so.

In general you are correct the claim isn't recognized, but it doesn't apply here.

Or he shouldn't have changed his flight plan without letting the ATC know, these things cause massive headaches for everyone else. ATC can't have regular service running when there's a rogue flight in the air.

He's lucky he is getting off with a slap on the wrist basically. The entitlement some people have is bewildering.

There are many ways to get approval for a flight to the Antarctic. Do it the right way.

Searching for his name shows he's been there since June, and that his original flight plan was just to fly over Puntas Arenas, which is about 1240 km away from the airbase he ended up at.

I wish there's a way to punish lawyers (and defendants) who deliberately lie.

Imagine a foreign small aircraft landing on an American air base without permission.

> Guo’s plane “does not have the capabilities to make a flight”

> The prosecutor’s office said Guo must also pay all costs for his “aircraft security and personal maintenance” during his stay at the military facility. He also needs to cover all expenses for his return.

They may be unwilling or unable to sell him 60 gallons of 100LL avgas. It's not like he's just pulling up to the FBO at a local airstrip. There are thousands of locations across the country and across the world where aviators can just land, taxi to a tiedown and fuel up, and take off...the Chilean military base in Antarctica is not one of those places.

Do you think the base has some outdoor tiedown locations in the Antarctic winter, or keeps hangar space available for recreational pilots? Are they going to requisition fuel from the mainland, or dip into their supplies? They may be looking at the weather and saying that he can't take off without deicing and engine temp control provisions that his Cessna 182 does not have. He needs to fly some 800 miles in an aircraft with about 1000 miles of range into Antarctic winter weather, he only has a few hours of daylight per day which may not be enough to fly VFR from Antarctica to Chile, depending on the winds through the notorious Drake Passage.

From the perspective of the base commander, there's a very young man (almost still a child) who is asking to buy the military's fuel as if it were for sale and asking him to change flight schedules and get permission from the tower to unwisely take off and put himself into a potentially lethal situation. The commander has probably refused the same requests from trainees with inadequate hours or certifications, or whose aircraft were not rated for the weather at the moment, and has managed to keep hundreds of his charges alive in a very hostile environment. "Teenager stranded at base" is not a headline he wants to publish, but "Teenager lost in Drake Passage after receiving fuel and takeoff clearance at base" is far, far worse.

Nah, not extortion. All self-inflicted idiocy. He's caused headaches for all these places, he should pay for the headaches.

I don't think it classifies as extortion when it's a plea deal to avoid being prosecuted for breaking multiple laws and potentially going to jail.

After entering Chilean territory illegally perhaps they should send him to killer whale Alcatraz?

Extorsion?

He lied about his flight plan, didn't ask for authorization to land on a remote military base, endangered himself and others, all this for personal aggrandizement (and he is using kids with cancer to cover for his ego trip)

He is very much stranded, as a civilian on a military base, they are just chucking all procedure and rules out, he does not officialy exist, but gets fed and a bed, and razzed and razzed and razzed, sounds like he held up, though it will likely be impossible for him to fly out as it would need special attention to get the plane running if it was left to freeze solid, and departure clearance will have to come from the minister in charge and then he could end up waiting for 6 months for good weather..... guy did a polar circumnavigation in a RV kitplane, very serious extended range