What was intended as a fundraising mission for cancer research has become a nightmare for American teen influencer Ethan Guo, who has been stuck since June in a remote location in Chilean territory in Antarctica.<\/p>\n
Authorities say Guo landed his small plane illegally after providing false flight plan information to officials who opened an investigation.<\/p>\n
Guo made headlines last year when the then-19-year-old teen began a trip in an attempt to become the youngest person to fly solo to all seven continents and at the same time collect donations for research into childhood cancer.<\/p>\n
As part of his trip, the teen who identifies as Asian American planned to go to the Antarctic, but according to the authorities he lied to officials by providing authorities with \u201cfalse flight plan data.\u201d Prosecutors said he had been authorized to only fly over Punta Arenas, but that he kept going south, heading for Antarctica in his Cessna 182Q \u2014 a single-engine light aircraft known for its versatility.<\/p>\n
Guo was charged on June 29 with handing false information to ground control and landing without authorization, but on Monday a judge dropped the charges as part of an agreement with his lawyers and Chile\u2019s prosecutors. It requires the teen to give a $30,000 donation to a children\u2019s cancer foundation within 30 days to avoid a trial. He must also leave the country as soon as conditions allow and is prohibited from reentering Chilean territory for three years.<\/p>\n
On Monday, after the judge\u2019s ruling, Guo told The Associated Press in a text message that he was \u201crelieved by the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the past six weeks, since being charged, he has stayed at a military base. He was not forced to stay there, only to remain in Chilean territory, but because of the severe winter in that part of the southern hemisphere, there haven’t been any available flights he could take. And he has been unable to fly his Cessna.<\/p>\n
Chilean prosecutor Cristi\u00e1n Crisoto on Monday told reporters that Guo\u2019s plane \u201cdoes not have the capabilities to make a flight,\u201d without providing details. But the American teen influencer said he is talking with this lawyer to see if there\u2019s a way he can fly it. <\/p>\n
\u201cI remain in Antarctica awaiting approval for my departure flight,\u201d Guo told AP. \u201cI sincerely hope they give it to me soon so that I and my plane can continue with my original mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prosecutor\u2019s office said Guo must also pay all costs for his \u201caircraft security and personal maintenance\u201d during his stay at the military facility. He also needs to cover all expenses for his return. <\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAntarctic researchers were able to identify four new colonies after satellite imagery revealed patches of poop.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What was intended as a fundraising mission for cancer research has become a nightmare for American teen influencer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":138403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[812,1582,276,2961,224,5337,21951],"class_list":{"0":"post-138402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-antarctica","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-trending-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115013202939343856","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}