Hawaii Plane Crash Caught On Tape
Solar Impulse 2 has taken off from Japan towards Hawaii on what is the most dangerous leg of the ambitious round the world flight so far.
The plane is attempting to circumnavigate the entire globe using nothing but solar power, and this five-day flight is its longest trip yet.
Weather constraints had delayed the trip by more than a month, but now the journey has passed its ‘point of no return’ and the plane will either land in Hawaii on Friday, or crash into the ocean.
Scroll down to watch video of the take-off and a live view from the cockpit
Swiss pilot André Borschberg has started the 5-day crossing of the Pacific (take-off shown). The flight from Nagoya, Japan to Hawaii is the longest solo plane flight ever attempted. It had been delayed for a month after the unscheduled stop in Japan. And it has now reached its point of no return – so there is no turning back
Solar Impulse 2 took off at 3.03am local time (7.23pm BST) yesterday after the unscheduled, month-long stop in Nagoya, Japan because of unfavourable weather.
The 4,500-mile (7,200km) flight to Hawaii is by far the longest leg of the journey so far, and is extremely risky because there are no places to land in an emergency.
Indeed, if the weather does get significantly worse, Swiss pilot André Borschberg will have no choice but to bail out of the plane, leaving it to crash in the ocean while he awaits rescue.
LIFE ON BOARD SOLAR IMPULSE
The two pilots have to contend with some testing conditions aboard the plane as they fly alone for up to five days at a time.
‘It’s a flying home in some ways,’ Mr Borschberg told MailOnline previously.
The cockpit has no heating, and the pilots are not able to stand up or walk around.
Instead, they can only recline in their seats to get a bit of exercise, such as yoga, or rest.
A ‘visit’ to the toilet is pretty uncomfortable too – they simply use a hole in their seat.
The pilots trained hard for the mission, during which they have faced temperatures dropping to -40°C (-40°F) in their cramped cockpit and have had to breathe oxygen from a tank to cope with the extreme altitudes.
This is the second attempt at crossing the Pacific; the first, a month ago, had to be aborted when the weather got much worse.
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But now there is no turning back for Mr Borschberg if things do get worse.
The non-stop flight, which can also be followed live on the Solar Impulse website, will take five days and five nights, with the landing expected some time on Friday depending on how quickly the plane can travel.
The Solar Impulse team said the first 10 hours of the flight had been ‘difficult’, as they had to solve technical problems before giving the final go-ahead when Solar Impulse was already off the coast of Japan.
Crossing the Pacific would represent a huge achievement for the team – not only proving it can overcome this daunting leg, but also smashing the record for the longest solo plane flight in history.
‘We are now at the point in the Round-the-World Solar Flight where everything comes together,’ Mr Borschberg said in a statement.
Solar Impulse 2 took off at 3.03am local time (7.23pm BST) yesterday after the unscheduled, month-long stop in Nagoya, Japan because of unfavourable weather. Shown here is a view from the plane after it was just a few hours into the groundbreaking flight
If the weather gets significantly worse, Swiss pilot André Borschberg (pictured) will have no choice but to bail out of the plane, leaving it to crash in the ocean while he awaits rescue. The 4,500-mile (7,200km) flight to Hawaii is by far the longest leg of the journey so far
Solar Impulse 2 is a solar powered airplane attempting a round-the-world flight. It is seen here flying over Nagoya Airport after taking off from the airport to Hawaii. The solar-powered plane cut short the seventh leg of its 35,000-km global (22,000-mile) journey earlier this month and had the unscheduled stop in Nagoya
THE SOLAR IMPULSE 2 JOURNEY
To break up flying day and night, Solar Impulse 2 is stopping in more than ten locations around the world.
After taking off in Abu Dhabi on 9 March 2015, capital of the United Arab Emirates, it stopped in Muscat in Oman before heading to Ahmedabad in India on 10 March and Varanasi, also in India, on 18 March.
On the same day it flew to Mandalay, Burma, before making a pit stop in Chongqing, China on 29 March – for three weeks, rather than the one planned.
After Nanjing in China, the next was a five-day flight to Honolulu in Hawaii, before this unscheduled stop in Japan.
A landing site in the south west of the US will be chosen depending on weather conditions, before the Solar Impulse 2 stops off at Phoenix and at JFK airport in New York City.
After crossing the Atlantic Ocean in five days, it will make a stop somewhere in southern Europe, before undertaking the final leg of its journey to land back in Abu Dhabi in July.