American pilot Ethan Guo poses for the photographer before his take off in a world record attempt to fly solo to all seven continents, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, August 6, 2024. (Photo Credit: Salvatore Di Nolfi/AP via CNN Newsource)

(CNN) — A judge in Chile has agreed to suspend proceedings against a teenage American pilot and social media influencer who has been stuck on a remote Antarctic island since late June after he was accused of landing there without permission.

Ethan Guo was attempting to fly to all seven continents solo, raising funds for cancer research, when he landed on a part of Antarctica where the South American country maintains a territorial claim. Prosecutors accused him of providing false information to ground control about his landing point.

On Monday, a judge approved an agreement between Guo’s lawyers and prosecutors to suspend the proceedings on the condition that he donate $30,000 to a children’s cancer foundation within 30 days. He must also leave the country and will be prohibited from reentering Chilean territory for three years.

Chilean prosecutor Cristián Crisosto told CNN on Tuesday that if Guo does not meet the conditions, the agreement would become void and the court proceedings would continue.

Crisosto said Guo and his plane were still in Antarctic territory and that he would also have to pay the costs of “aircraft security and personal maintenance.” In previous cases, he said, such costs have been roughly $600 a day.

Guo has been trying to secure passage on a boat to leave the Antarctic island, his US-based legal team said in a statement shared with CNN on Wednesday. They said he hasn’t been allowed to fly his plane off the base where he is located and that his health has deteriorated since landing there.

Landing in Antarctica

Chilean authorities said that Guo had submitted a false flight plan and took off from Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Airport in Punta Arenas in late June as the sole passenger and crew member aboard a Cessna 182Q aircraft, registered as N182WT. At one point during that flight, authorities say he turned off course toward Antarctica.

Guo’s attorneys called the accusations against him “unfounded.”

They said Guo’s original destination was Ushuaia, Argentina, but Chilean officials suggested that he circle over the Tierra del Fuego region before landing due to what they called “bureaucratic confusion over flight rule permissions.” While doing so, they said Guo encountered instrument failures and icy conditions that forced him to divert over the ocean. There, they said, he experienced further engine-related issues, leading him to request landing at Marsh base in Chile’s Antarctic territory.

Guo shared with CNN documents and audio recordings of his communications with air traffic control, which his team says show he was given explicit permission by Chile’s civil aviation authority to land at the base.

However, speaking to CNN, prosecutor Crisosto said that the authorization was “not to go to Antarctica, that authorization was – once already in Antarctica, they let him land. Why? So he wouldn’t crash.” He also questioned why the pilot had not landed at other airports in South America’s southernmost region.

Chile-based attorney Karina Ulloa, who initially represented Guo after he landed in Antarctica, previously said the young pilot had experienced “complications” while flying, adding that Guo claims “that he was conducting an exploratory flight to see if he could follow this route or not.”

Guo, whose website states he was trying to raise $1 million for cancer research by becoming “the first person ever to fly to all seven continents solo,” had broadcast his continent-hopping journey since last September to more than a million Instagram followers.

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