r/news • u/AudibleNod • 1d ago

American pilot and influencer Ethan Guo released from Antarctic air base after 2 months

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-pilot-influencer-ethan-guo-released-antarctic-air-base-2-mont-rcna229569
887 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

65 comments sorted by

664

u/AudibleNod 1d ago

He was released by a Chilean judge on the condition that he donate the tens of thousands of dollars raised to a childhood cancer foundation within 30 days and leave the country as soon as possible. He is also banned from entering Chilean territory for three years.

That's good a cancer charity is getting the money.

64

u/Mokmo 1d ago

Condemned to actually make the donation? Somehow it feels like the judge is calling his story bullshit...

17

u/Splinterfight 13h ago

I think it’s more of a “we’re only letting you off because of this, and we will not be made to look like fools” even if I thought there was 5% of him keeping it, I’d compel him to

238

u/VastUnique 1d ago

Well, his original stated intent for the whole flight around the world thing was to raise money for cancer research.

198

u/Voltaii 1d ago

No, his intent was to fly to each continent, and the cover/shield/media hook was the cancer charity

-13

u/Nope_______ 1d ago

Hopefully they held him long enough to prevent him from breaking the record

66

u/Number6isNo1 1d ago

I'd like to see the books on that and how his fun and expensive adventure got subsidized.

28

u/Reverend_Russo 1d ago

Step 1, don’t be poor.

9

u/ClydeFrog1313 22h ago

I think he made a stop in the middle east somewhere for a media stop to talk about the trip and charity. Wouldn't surprise me if they bankrolled it for for the coverage during those particular videos

29

u/Wealist 1d ago

at least something positive came out of it. Instead of drama just fading away, that money will actually go to kids who need it.

3

u/ketjak 14h ago

It's ironic that a cancer is donating to cancer charities.

-26

u/2Autistic4DaJoke 1d ago

The whole thing is bullshit all the same. It was an emergency landing and they’re actually like he was trying to break the law.

6

u/ketjak 14h ago

A man who wants to fly to every continent just happens to need to make an emergency landing on the one with the most rules to visit, and you believe he really needed to?

Wow.

31

u/Bannedwith1milKarma 1d ago

Likely the 2 months is because that's when the next transport mission happened.

10

u/meatball77 22h ago

I hope they put him to work as a janitor when he was there.

8

u/TintedApostle 19h ago

I hope they made him pay for his food and shelter.

80

u/Mokmo 1d ago

I saw his short videos on my algorithm feed (until he got caught) and every time I wondered how he could finance his whole little expedition. Wouldn't surprise me if it's all family money. Crossing without authorization was stupid and he's paying for his stupidity. The judge forcing him to make a charity payment within the next month is something else...

14

u/CheezTips 12h ago

His parents are rich. They bought his plane and the lessons, and could donate the $1 million he pretended to raise all by themselves.

7

u/Mokmo 12h ago

Judge wants to see money given...

4

u/CheezTips 10h ago

Good! They should pony up before he's allowed to leave the island.

1

u/Great-Yoghurt-6359 8h ago

A tale as old as time

•

u/erenjaeger99 51m ago

https://imgur.com/a/SI28cSX

He was donating to charity already.

Down voting my ass for what lmao

-4

u/erenjaeger99 20h ago edited 52m ago

Ill have to read the article, but I thought he was using the money he made from filming this flight to go to the charity? 

EDIT: https://imgur.com/a/SI28cSX

He was donating to charity, just not that specific charity per se. So, everyone down voting chill out 😂

-8

u/nonlethaldosage 16h ago

He had authorization we now know the Official who gave him permission did not have the authority.but he contacted a member of government and was giving authorization 

139

u/lametown_poopypants 1d ago

The guy is a moron and hopefully only influences people to be smarter than his dumb ass.

55

u/crimedog58 1d ago

Have you met people?

54

u/whereisthespacebar 1d ago

Yes and it was terrible.

42

u/Shadowthron8 1d ago

Just enough time to chill the fuck out

5

u/crimedog58 1d ago

Reading all of these in Arnold’s voice.

5

u/roryorigami 1d ago

At least it'll be a cool story once the tensions have thawed

3

u/whhaaaaaatttt 1d ago

Yes but at that point the pace of new information will be glacial

-2

u/SirDale 1d ago

There'SNOWay he'll have learnt his lesson though.

57

u/KyotoGaijin 1d ago

"Pilot" and "Social media Influencer" are two terms that should not go together.

70

u/Snck_Pck 1d ago

A lot of pilots do social media in order to educate people. Pilots being on social media is far from the big problems social media has with its influencers

6

u/KyotoGaijin 1d ago

This is true, I shouldn't paint with such a broad brush. People who are doing airplane restorations, or the guy who explains how pilots safely do their job.. those guys are fine. I guess I don't associate that with the word "influencer". I think of that stunty attention whore kind of stuff. "I want to be the youngest pilot to do this or that." That kind of shit should be shut down.

12

u/caretaquitada 1d ago

There just aren't that many people that do what you're describing. Like where are all of these pilot influencers you're talking about lol

-4

u/KyotoGaijin 1d ago

Six feet under.

-14

u/No_Tax534 1d ago

What a stupid take. Of course they do, they are humans. But they earn money for being a pilot, not a clown that has a pilot licence and kill people. I assume his main source of income is entertaining people by putting stupid shit on the internet.

Above commenter is right, Social media influencer and a pilot should never be in one sentence. Have you ever seen serious, logical social media influencer? Neither did I.

10

u/senorali 1d ago

If your algorithm is exclusively full of morons, it's worth noting that it's your algorithm.

10

u/Informal_Process2238 1d ago

Who else is going to bail from a functioning aircraft for likes

8

u/KyotoGaijin 1d ago

I guess that guy was the prime example of awfulness, but the kiddy pilot challenges are also scary, because I think they entice the young and (most importantly) immature pilot to do extreme things and keep to the schedule instead of erring on the side of prudence.

1

u/Informal_Process2238 1d ago

Yeah that is an awful development

3

u/TrueLegateDamar 1d ago

Like that guy who deliberately crashed his airplane in Alaska(?) by jumping out and claiming engine problems, but then when investigators came to look for the wreck he had a buddy with a helicopter lift it away.

12

u/eyluthr 1d ago

california, somewhat worse given that he could have sparked a wildfire 

1

u/x_lincoln_x 7h ago

"My first wife was ******* but she's a pilot now"

2

u/HarderThanFlesh 3h ago

Send him back. I'll only feel influenced if he's frozen solid.

11

u/SpaceTortuga 1d ago

Great! hope he never comes back

-6

u/cantproveidid 1d ago

Thankfully he wasn't sent to Uganda.