On Friday September 3^rd 1999 The British Royal Air Force’s squadron leader Greg Cook, Commanding Officer of 1312 Flight Falkland Islands, lead a mission to over-fly and photograph the giant iceberg B10A. Meteorological office forecaster Keith Fenwick from the Mount Pleasant Airport provided weather forecasts for the mission. This service is part of the round-the-clock meteorological support to operations at the airport. The following visual observation along with the corresponding digital photograph’s are provided with thanks to them.

The C130 Hercules departed Mount Pleasant Airport at 1630 UTC and arrived over the iceberg at 1800 UTC. The C130 was supported by a VC10 tanker aircraft also of 1312 flight. The iceberg at this time was positioned at around 59 degrees 28 minutes South, 58 degrees 45 minutes West. B10 A measured some 38 Nautical Miles long and 14 Nautical Miles wide and was oriented lengthwise NW to SE. The southern edge of B10A was approximately 200 FT tall while the northern edge was approximately 100 FT tall.

Two very large crevasses along the length of the iceberg were observed as well as numerous other places where relatively small bits were ready to detach. It is anticipated calving will also occur along the large crevasses. The surrounding water was covered in small floating ice debris to an estimated 200 M to 300 M from the ice wall. It was noted that numerous caves, some of which looked vast in themselves around its periphery, had formed. Above some of the caves long crevasses had formed. In the direct vicinity of B10 many bergy bits and growlers were observed.

Stretching to a distance of some 80 Nautical Miles northeastwards from the iceberg, numerous large icebergs were observed. These were located in the prevailing downwind direction. A layer of 7 Oktas of Stratocumulus cloud affected the general area at the time. Aircrew from the VC10 aircraft flying above the cloud layer noticed the cloud tops to be uniform in height apart from the area above the iceberg where the cloud tops where lower than elsewhere forming a very identifiable "footprint". The sea state near B10 A was slight but generally rough elsewhere.

No wildlife was observed on the iceberg.