In this video we get rare access to the A350 flight deck, joining the pilots as they operate Finnair’s long polar route from Tokyo (HND) to Helsinki (HEL). At 12.5 hours this is quite a bit longer than it used to be, but that’s what it takes to avoid Russian airspace and get home. On the return leg from Tokyo the route right over the North Pole is often the quickest because of winds, and on this flight we fly out over the Pacific, through Alaskan airspace, then straight up to within about 30 miles of the North Pole before heading down to Helsinki via Svalbard and northern Norway.
Along the way we encounter some nasty weather over the Pacific, enjoy a brief moment of dawn before the sun sets onces again, see the northern lights (aurora borealis) over the Arctic, try to capture a video of the North Pole in darkness, and see another fantastic and mysterious astronomical phenomenon too. This was a fantastic and fascinating flight. We hope you enjoy.
