Explorers See Greenland's Glaciers Like Never Before | National Geographic

[Music]

Lots of people who have tried before us had failed, and all of their aircraft are scattered across the ice cap.

You ready?

Oh yeah!

When thinking about flying a tiny helicopter across the North Atlantic, the answer is no, way too dangerous, absolutely not.

Sandra, are we good to go?

But we're going to go for it!

So, I've got a company; it's called Five Fly. We have airplanes and helicopters that we loaded up with instruments and gear to go out, collect information, and bring it back to people so that they can do good.

[Music]

The goal was to take this new helicopter we thought and bring it from London all the way to San Diego. Planning for this trip, Greenland was totally mysterious; that was the unknown to me, which was the most attractive part.

There's no footage of this area because it's really hard to get to. Coming down that shoreline was just absolutely fantastic! You can see for what seems to be a hundreds of miles, and there are these icebergs just everywhere.

Greenland is a huge cap of ice, and the ice cap comes down to the shoreline where it starts to break apart in the form of these glaciers. That's where we were flying along, and you can see the glaciers falling apart right on the ocean's surface. You just can't help but wonder how this huge environment is changing.

All I had to do is look down, and you can see the place melting, and it's melting fast. As Greenland melts, you have to wonder where is all this water going? And it's going right into the ocean.

I mean, this waterfall that we saw was just absolutely massive, and it's just pouring water right off the glacier into the ocean. Flying along, watching the water from these melt pools disappear down a hole, sending all this heat to the bottom of Greenland has to make you wonder, you know, is this a disappearing landscape?

[Music]

These glaciers are literally crumbling behind us right now. We are on the front lines of climate change.

[Music]

We captured this type of imagery so that we can help inspire the people that are in charge of this planet. And it's not just politicians; it's people like you and I that put gas in our cars, that turn on the light bulb, that build houses, that make these huge infrastructures. It's important to understand how this affects places that we've never been.

[Music]

To just come here, and in one day, make a huge assessment of what the planet is doing is just wrong. But it does take your breath away when you're here, and you see it for yourself.

I can't tell you how absolutely exciting it is to be able to go to a place, survive it, fill our cameras with footage that has never been seen, and bring it back to the world. To be able to share with you a place that is absolutely remarkable and special.

[Music]

You

[Music]