Record-breaking British helicopter pilots Jennifer Murray and Colin Bodill have reached the South Pole. They arrived at 5am (GMT) on Sunday 7 January.

Jennifer and Colin are flying a Bell 407 helicopter around the world via the South and North Poles. They set off from Fort Worth, Dallas, USA on 5 December and have so far completed about a quarter of the planned trip.

This is Jennifer and Colin's second attempt to set this record. Their first attempt ended in near disaster on 20 December 2003, when they crashed in white-out conditions in Antarctica, two days after reaching the South Pole. Both pilots sustained serious injuries.
 
Talking via satellite phone from the South Pole, Jennifer said, "It's a terrific feeling to have made it to the South Pole. Bad weather conditions have hampered our progress along the way but we had a clear weather window when leaving Fowler and flying the 1200 miles to the Pole in one go has put us very much back on schedule."
 
"With memories of our last time in Antarctica being overshadowed by the crash, it's been great to come back and lay a few ghosts to rest. Obviously the next milestone is to get out of Antarctica and back across the Drake Passage safely.

"I'll certainly be feeling relieved once we're back in Ushuaia [Argentina], but there'll be no time for celebration as we're only half way through and have to push on northward to the North Pole. Having got this far, morale is high - although we're obviously feeling tired - but we know we've got a long way to go yet and a lot more challenges ahead of us.  

"Our Bell 407 is performing wonderfully and we have great confidence every time we start it up and fly away," Jennifer said.

Follow their progress in their LOOP Blog. Click here for more.

W: www.polarfirst.com