British Antarctic Survey — United Kingdom
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is a world-leading centre for polar science and polar operations, addressing issues of global importance and helping society adapt to a changing world. The BAS Air Unit sits within the Polar Operations and Engineering directorate, who provide operational support for UK polar research. The operations team cover a wide range of activities from managing Arctic and Antarctic Research stations, operating polar ships and aircraft.
Our expertise is in polar fieldwork planning, aircraft and ship operations as well as developing engineering and technology solutions for science.
The Air Unit therefore requires exceptional pilots to work within a small team, flying DeHavilland Twin Otters in Antarctica and supporting science campaigns around the world. The right candidates are not just pilots, but people who would thrive working in diverse teams supporting the delivery of complex operations safely in some of the most extreme and challenging environments on Earth.
The role of an Air Unit pilot, supporting science in both Antarctica and across the world, involves considerable autonomy and a high level of leadership to ensure safe delivery. It is a physically and mentally demanding role, often working long hours and enduring unexpected nights camped out with the aircraft in field conditions.
The flying is very varied, dynamic and involves being deployed to Rothera, our Antarctic, base for periods of up to 6 months, between October and February each year. Our flying is predominantly orientated around delivering cargo and passengers into remote locations, where loading and unloading the aircraft is a manual activity, led by and involving the pilot.
In addition, with a network of scientific instruments and fuel depots spread over western Antarctica, there is a considerable flying program to service these each year; often involving many hours of digging out fuel drums and instruments to raise them back to the surface after winter snow. Key to our success is maintaining operational professionalism and continued innovation in everything we do.
Our aircraft are maintained in Calgary in Canada, where we also undertake training flying and spend time in the DeHavilland Canada simulators. With Antarctic deployments and summer science campaigns, like the one we undertook in Brazil in 2025, it is not unusual for pilots to spend up to 8 months of the year outside of the UK; BAS Air Unit pilots are contracted for 221 working days and 144 days leave per annum.
Applicants must be mentally and physically robust with an inherent strong sense of adventure. For more information about the pilot role and living and working in Antarctica, please view the following resources:
British Antarctic Survey (BAS) pilots are responsible to the Chief Pilot for the safe and efficient operation of BAS aircraft, as laid out in the Air Operations Manual and relevant Airworthiness Authority Regulations. The responsibility will include:
- Implementation of the BAS Flying Programme, as directed by the Air Unit Management - Ensuring all objectives are achieved in a safe and efficient manner - Ensuring that the wider goals of the BAS and its collaborators are met
Primary duties include flying and non-flying tasks, where pilots must be able to adapt to their surroundings and always display excellent leadership qualities. Pilots are expected to take a pro-active approach to all tasks and display initiative and good situational awareness, particularly when operating in remote environments. When deployed to Rothera, the non-flying tasks will involve time spent not only undertaking aviation operations support activity in the Air Unit Hangar, but also wider activity which collective supports the deployed community.
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