How to fly an A350 over the North Pole

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.

Other archival photos courtesy Finnair.

SECTIONS:
00:00 Departure from Tokyo
01:37 Avoiding Russian military exercises
01:57 Dodging weather over the Pacific
03:37 A350 flight level advantage
04:09 Harnesses on
04:45 Location of thunderstorms
05:27 Captain explains our route
06:27 Seatbelt signs off
06:42 The CPDLC explained
08:18 Short history of polar routes
08:53 A350 polar advantages
09:28 ETOPS-300
09:44 Finding the North Star
10:08 The old DC-10 flights
10:45 "A special flight"
11:05 Relief pilots take over
11:44 Dinner and a brief rest
12:45 A very brief dawn over Alaska
13:55 Back in the flight deck
14:08 NOPOL
14:33 How far are we from Thule?
15:45 Northern lights
16:33 HF radio
18:03 The compass at the Pole
18:51 The North Pole
20:18 Overflying Svalbard
20:28 Northern Norway in sight
20:39 Incredible celestial activity
21:15 Closing thoughts & approach to HEL
22:39 On the ground

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[lauvstad]

Looks like the star you were seeing was Sirius, which is the brightest star in the sky. The reason it was blinking or pulsing in different colors is due to light of different wavelengths (or colors) being refracted in different ways through the turbulent layers of the atmosphere lower down. You can tell it is Sirius because you can see the constellation Orion up to the right from it, and the characteristic 3 stars in Orion’s Belt points roughly at Sirius.

[TheKoiPartner]

I flew this same route with KLM from NRT (Tokyo) to AMS (Schiphol) on the 4th of November. It was the first flight of KLM on this route in 20 years. The northern lights, the Ice it was all visible. The flight time
Was 14 hours and I experienced 2 sunrises in one flight! Lucky to be on that flight again in January.

[ianhamilton]

For even the casual aviation enthusiast or observer of this channel, this is one extraordinary video. What a journey and thanks for taking us along for the ride. Thanks to Finnair too for whatever they did to grant your permissions and the pilots for being your hosts. I flew the Concorde once on a flight to nowhere towards the North Pole, I now understand there was no comparison with this. Well done!

[jsv]

Very nice video. My dad was a DC-10 and MD-11 captain at Finnair. He flew that polar route during the cold war (he is old now, 80 years old). My mom was a stewardess at Finnair so I literally owe that company my life 😂

I'm obviously biased but I always thought Finnish pilots are the best, on the roads or in the airs. Respect to all pilots though, it's mad and awesome job.

[GordonjSmith]

I don't think enough people appreciate the network of skills and technologies that make this passage possible. What a great vlog!

[iancarrington]

A perfect demonstration of why even today taking a flight isn't like catching a bus - it's a place of wonder. Thank you!

[Westlander]

Looks like you were bumping around quite a bit for the first stages of the flight during that weather. Very cool to see how the pilots handle it. Their communication and organization skills are impeccable. Awesome stuff.

[christianeduardo]

As a son of a former commercial pilot, DC10, I cannot tell you how beautiful and deeply entertaining this video was. Many thanks, sincerely.

[ronhunt]

Great video! I spent the better part of 17 years flying Asian routes out of Chicago and have been over the North Pole and through that area several hundred times. While I flew, 767's 777's and finally 787's on those trips, your video brings back a lot of great memories of the incredible views we saw, the fantastic people I was fortunate to work with and the amazing equipment we got to fly. I had to chuckle a bit, it sounds like the same lady we used to talk to is working at Tokyo control and clearly the ride out of Japan hasn't gotten any better re: the turbulence. Thanks again for the memories and a great video!

[ehsan]

the journey was super cool but these pilots were even cooler. shout out to them for letting you in the cockpit, answering to your questions and really having friendly conversations with you. really enjoyed watching this. thank you for sharing

[BomberFletch]

This right here is one of the reasons why I am an aviation enthusiast. What an incredible machine the A350 is, to be able to take us over some of the most remote, but also some of the most beautiful areas of the planet. Not only that, we get to see natural celestial phenomena such as the Aurora Borealis, as well as celestial bodies in the sky.

This is a very well produced video. Well done.

[johannamaaniemi]

Thank you Gabriel for this amazing video and also thank you Finnair for letting Gabriel to do this. What a journey across the North Pole. Huge respect to our Finnair’s pilots. You guys rock 👍

[johnburrows]

There's something soothing and almost therapeutic about watching these professional pilots at work in their office.

[watchhans]

I can still remember the early 1980's when several European airlines were flying to Japan across the North Pole and via Anchorage.
Lufthansa's 747-200 were even equipped with special polar protection suits for the crew to put on in case of an emergency landing or ditching in that icey region. Today, that sounds pretty weird, but back in those days it was a more adventurous flight than it is today.
But the unique views out of the aircraft's windows were the same spectacular ones like in this video.
At this point the adventure still remains the same like 40 years ago.

[busdriver]

That flickering star was Sirius. A couple of weeks ago on the way to Bucharest from London, my FO thought the same as you. It did look like another aircraft, nothing was on TCAS and as we headed east it rose higher in the sky and became bright white. What a great film-tempted to bid for the 350 now-makes the 320 NEO I fly look old and dated!

[jackyu]

Beautiful video. I only flew Finnair twice, during my flights to and back from Helsinki for my honeymoon in 2003. Those flights happened on the MD-11. I will never forget the beautiful tri-engine plane as sat waiting for passengers to board at the gate. Such a lovely bird. Now, I can't wait to fly the Finnair A350!

[incremental_failure]

I took the Finnair A350 NRT-HEL recently, it's nice both in economy and business. The attendants are also liberal with food and drink, which makes the economy flight seem more luxurious than the price suggests. It's the best plane to fly on, not tiring at all.

[allanobrien]

What an excellent video. I don't like flying very much but I watch these type of channels as it has helped my anxiety a lot when it comes to flying. I've always had to take medication to fly but recently managed 4 flights with no medication which was a big step for me.

[justisphoto]

This was by far one of the most enjoyable flight docs I have seen. Most excellent work! Thank you

[lewsdiod]

Wow, what a cozy adventure! So far away from everything, yet carried with such grace and capability by both flight crew and aircraft tech. Incredible.