US teen pilot detained in Antarctica during attempt to fly solo to all seven continents
Ethan Guo, 19, has been accused by Chile of submitting a false flight plan and landing in Antarctica without permission.
Guo hopes his quest, which began last May, will raise $1 million for cancer research and he has been charting his progress on Instagram, where he has over one million followers.
His last post, uploaded on day 142 of the trip on June 23, documented a flight over the Philippines to Manila International Airport.
Guo's run-in with the Chilean authorities occurred on Saturday after he took off from Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Airport in the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas. Flying in a Cessna 182Q aircraft, he was diverted and landed at an airfield in Chilean Antarctic territory.
"The accused provided false information to the aeronautical authority. He submitted a flight plan indicating that he was going to fly over the city of Punta Arenas," Regional Prosecutor Cristian Crisosto Rifo said in a video posted to X.
"However, he continued on his way to Antarctica without any information or authorization, landing at the Lieutenant Rodolfo Marsh Base in Chilean Antarctic territory."
He was detained upon landing at the air base.
A lawyer for Guo told CNN that he experienced "complications" during the flight. Guo began his continent-hopping odyssey in Memphis, Tennessee, making multiple overnight stops and visiting seven countries to get to the Swiss city of Geneva, before flying to Heraklion in Greece.
Since then, he's covered around 25,000 miles every 50 days in a fund-raising bid prompted by a cousin being diagnosed with Stage-4 blood cancer.
Guo — born in Tianjin, China, and currently living in West Palm Beach, Florida — started learning to fly at the age of 13 and got his pilot's license four years later.
Before setting off, Guo revealed that he understood the risks.
He said: "Through my experiences — like an engine failure on the very beginning of the trip... I was forced to face the fact that I could die at any point."
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