site.btaFlight to King George Island of Participants in 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition Cancelled

The flight that was supposed to take part of the fourth group of participants in the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic expedition from Punta Arenas to King George Island on Wednesday was cancelled due to strong wind in the destination area, and they remain in the Chilean city until a new departure opportunity arises.

A new flight is expected to be scheduled for Thursday, although it is unclear whether and at what time it will be able to depart. 

The plane that was to take the Bulgarian Antarctic researchers to King George Island was chartered by the Turkish Antarctic expedition, which has been cooperating with Bulgarian Antarctic expeditions for several years.

The fourth group of the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic expedition departed from Sofia Vasil Levski Airport on January 24. The group includes Assoc. Prof. Stoyan Georgiev of the Geological Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), Chief Assistant Snezhana Rusinova-Videva of the BAS Institute of Microbiology, Chief Assistant Gergana Georgieva from the Faculty of Physics at the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, Prof. Emil Stanev from Germany, as well as Greek researchers Dionysia Rigatou from the University of Athens and Eleni Kytinou from the Institute of Oceanography at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research. The group also includes Bulgarian News Agency special correspondent Simona-Alex Mihaleva and journalist Jivko Konstantinov.

Once the weather is favoyrable and the participants in the Bulgarian expedition land on King George Island, the Bulgarian naval research ship Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) will transport them to the Bulgarian Antarctic base on Livingston Island.

RSV 421 departed for Antarctica from Varna (on the Black Sea) on November 7. BTA has had a national press club on board since 2022 and another on Livingston Island since February 2024.

The news pieces of the BTA special correspondents on RSV 421 and Antarctica are freely available in Bulgarian and English on the agency's website. They can be used free of charge by all media with reference to BTA.