The icy Solution to Antarctica’s Biggest Runways

Planes landing on ice is the only way for people to survive in Antarctica. But how does that work? How do planes even stop on ice? And how do you prepare a runway for landing? So how do planes stop on ice? Rather than using a mix of brakes and reverse thrust like normal planes, planes landing on ice runways only use reverse thrust in order to stop. Thus, the runway also has to be a lot longer to give the plane enough time to slow down. Preparing the so-called blue ice runway for landing is what you'd expect. All the snow has to be removed from the runway. And along with that, the ice has to be leveled out. After that, the most important thing is to carve graves into the ice to allow the wheels to get enough grip. All this takes a very long time, since the runway has to be around 3km long. And to finish all off, landing lights have to be installed. Conditions also have to be right. Planes can't land if it's slippery, windy or the clouds are too low. So that's why the conditions are checked at all times.