Chinese Copter Rescues 52 From Ship in Antarctic Ice
By ALAN COWELL and EDWARD WONG
Published: January 2, 2014
LONDON — In a dramatic operation displaying unusual international harmony in one of the world’s most remote and inhospitable places, a red-and-white Chinese helicopter on Thursday rescued 52 passengers trapped for more than a week aboard an icebound Russian research ship in Antarctica, ferrying them a dozen at a time to an Australian icebreaker.
Passengers linked arms and stamped out a helicopter landing site.
The twin-rotor helicopter, based on a Chinese icebreaker, the Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, flew several sorties across miles of packed ice to pluck scientists, tourists and journalists from a landing zone next to the marooned vessel, the Akademik Shokalskiy.
The blue-hulled Russian ship was surrounded by such dense and extensive pack ice that it could not move, and vessels designed to break through ice could not get near. Images from the people being rescued showed them smiling as they walked single file across the ice to a landing area that had been cleared by passengers and crew members to enable the helicopter to touch down. Other images on the Internet showed crew members hauling sleds with luggage.
As the rescue got underway with the arrival of the Chinese helicopter, Chris Turney, a leader of the research expedition and a professor of climate change at the University of New South Wales in Australia, said in a message on Twitter that the Chinese helicopter had arrived. “It’s 100% we’re off!” he wrote. “A huge thanks to all.”
The rescue was closely followed around the world by scientists and others, with journalists on board sending progress reports as the passengers were lifted to safety aboard the Australian icebreaker, the Aurora Australis.
Before the operation began, rescuers said they were worried that the weather would turn bad and prevent the helicopter from flying. The captain of the Xue Long, Jia Shuliang, told the Chinese state news agency Xinhua that the rescue would take five or six flights and last three or four hours if conditions were good.
“We must be patient and wait until the adverse weather improves, as poor visibility could lead to tragedy under the current conditions of limited navigation,” he said before the first flight.
But, several hours later, Dr. Turney sent another message on Twitter saying, “We’ve made it to the Aurora Australis safe and sound.” The Australian Maritime Safety Agency, which coordinated the rescue, said the crew of the Aurora Australis had confirmed that the 52 passengers were on board.
The ship is to take the rescued passengers to the Australian island state of Tasmania, arriving there in mid-January.
The 22 crew members of the Russian research ship planned to stay on board until the ice releases its grip. The ship is well stocked for a long voyage, passengers said.
The 233-foot Russian research ship has been lodged in the ice since Dec. 24, when powerful winds encircled it with pack ice near Cape de la Motte, about 1,700 miles south of Hobart, Tasmania.
The ship had set sail from Bluff, New Zealand, on Dec. 8, embarking on a planned monthlong voyage known as the Australasian Antarctic Expedition to study changes to the environment of East Antarctica since an Australian geologist, Douglas Mawson, surveyed the region a century ago.
Efforts to rescue the passengers began when the Aurora Australis was diverted from a resupply operation at an Australian Antarctic base. But the ship was unable to break through and risked becoming stuck itself, according to Australian maritime authorities.
The Xue Long failed in a similar attempt on Saturday but remained in the area. The Chinese ship was about two months into a five-month Antarctic expedition.
Alan Cowell reported from London, and Edward Wong from Beijing. Chen Jiehao contributed research from Beijing.
