Yes, planes can fly over the North Pole. Many flights from North America to Europe and North America to Asia, and vice versa, cross the North Pole in an effort to cut flight time and save fuel.
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It's not illegal to go to the North Pole. It's just hard to get there. And when you arrive, there's not much to see except a lot of ice. The North Pole is in international waters (under all the ice).
It's only possible to travel to the North Pole by ship during June and July. Outside of these months, you can consider travelling by plane and helicopter, or by the hauled-sled route.
The short answer is, no, it's not illegal to fly over Antarctica. But there are practical considerations that make it challenging for regular airlines to navigate across the land. In many parts of Antarctica, there's limited or no infrastructure, no landing strips, and obviously no refuelling stations for planes.
The most common reason is that there are no airstrips or airports on many of the small islands, so if a plane had to make an emergency landing, it would be difficult to find a place to land. Additionally, the Pacific Ocean is vast and remote, so if a plane were to go down, it would be very difficult to find.
The depth of the ocean at the North Pole is more than 4,000 meters (13,123 feet). The Canadian territory of Nunavut lies closest to the North Pole. Greenland, the world's largest island and an autonomous teterritory within the Kingdom of Denmark, is also close to the pole.
American explorer Richard Byrd and three companions make the first flight over the South Pole, flying from their base on the Ross Ice Shelf to the pole and back in 18 hours and 41 minutes. Richard Evelyn Byrd learned how to fly in the U.S. Navy and served as a pilot in World War I.
Currently, the bragging rights for the longest flight in the world belong to Singapore Airlines' New York City to Singapore route. Its longest flight path, which connects Singapore's Changi Airport with New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, 9,585 miles away, takes 18 hours and 40 minutes.
The flight path goes within 900 miles of the North Pole. On the Pacific Ocean segment between Alaska and Japan, passengers are taken over the International Date Line, “losing” a day en route to the Japanese capital.