The actual flight over the North Pole was no big deal, as I see it. But the expedition gave me self-confidence, which I was low on.
– Ingrid Pedersen interviewed in Dagbladet newspaper in October 1996.
By: Ann Kristin Balto // Norwegian Polar Institute
A search for transpolar flights in the Norwegian Polar Institute Photo Archive turns up a few shots of a red-haired woman under the wing of a green and black Cessna 205 propeller aircraft. She’s going flying!
The woman in the photo is aviator Ingrid Pedersen (née Liljegren), who in 1963 became the first woman to fly an aircraft over the North Pole. She accomplished this feat with her husband, Einar Sverre Pedersen, in a Cessna 205 named Snow Goose. Ingrid was instructed that if the engine cut out right after take-off, “then you have to dip the nose hard, make sure you keep your speed up, and just hope you touch down somewhere fairly level…”. A red fire engine was on standby. The take-off from Fairbanks, Alaska went well, but the aircraft was heavily loaded, and fair weather was needed, as icing on the aircraft would increase the load.
Now, at last, they were airborne, en route to the North Pole. Ingrid’s husband was responsible for the navigation, which was dicey when flying near the magnetic north pole, which causes compass deviation. As safety equipment, they were carrying life jackets and a life raft in case they had to make an emergency landing, and they had a backup radio, too. They flew over Fletcher’s Ice Island, a drifting iceberg on which a US naval research laboratory had been established in the Arctic Ocean. When they passed the North Pole after 17 hours in the air, they radioed the following position: “Resolute Bay, November Eight, Three Five Seven Zulu, position 90 degrees north, altitude 3,000 feet. Over.”
Their flight then continued to Station Nord, Greenland, where the couple enjoyed a lavish dinner with almost the entire station crew of 35. Only one man was missing; he had been stationed there for ten years and was wary of women, Ingrid was told. After a good night’s sleep, they took off for Bodø, Norway, but they encountered fog and the aircraft lost altitude due to icing. As the aircraft descended, the temperature rose, melting the ice layer so they could land safely in Bodø.
The Pedersens later settled in Svalbard, where Ingrid worked for the Lufttransport airline and flew missions for the Norwegian Polar Institute.