Solo pilot Polly Vacher, from Oxfordshire, has helped resolve a diplomatic row during her epic around-the-world flight via both poles.

While grounded temporarily in Antarctica because of weather problems, she has come to the aid of a fellow flyer stranded on the continent through lack of fuel.

Australian Jon Johanson angered both the US and New Zealand governments when he had to make an emergency landing at their joint McMurdo-Scott base.

He flew across the South Pole from New Zealand in an attempt to reach Argentina but was forced down by strong headwinds.

The authorities have a strict rule that private expeditions in the regions are entirely self-sufficient, and refused to supply him the 88 gallons he needed to fly back to New Zealand.

But Mrs Vacher, 59, from Drayton, near Abingdon, who is more than halfway through her solo attempt at circumnavigation, stepped in and offered to sell unused fuel reserves she had earlier stockpiled at the base.