Stranded Antarctic passengers evacuated

All 52 passengers who spent Christmas and New Year trapped on an icebound Russian research vessel in Antarctica have been airlifted from the ice in a dramatic rescue mission.

A Chinese helicopter which landed on a makeshift landing pad next to the marooned ship ferried the scientists, tourists, and journalists in groups of 12 to an Australian government supply ship, the Aurora Australis.

The passengers had been stuck for 10 days in thick pack ice 100 nautical miles east of the French base of Dumont d’Urville after their vessel, Akademik Shokalskiy, became frozen in place.

Three icebreaking ships had been unable to clear a path to it.

“Aurora Australis has advised AMSA [Australian Maritime Safety Authority] that the 52 passengers from the Akademik Shokalskiy are now on board,” AMSA said.

Expedition leader Chris Turney expressed his “great relief” that the complex operation, which had been fraught with setbacks and challenges, finally went off without a hitch.

“We’ve made it to the Aurora Australis safe and sound. A huge thanks to the Chinese and the Australian Antarctic Division for all their hard work,” Turney tweeted

The Sydney Morning Herald, which has a reporter aboard the Aurora Australis, said many of those brought off the Russian ship were relieved, with one woman crying tears of joy. “It really has been an emotional rollercoaster,” Joanne Sim told the newspaper.

Their ordeal began on Dec 24 when a southerly front and blizzard trapped the Shokalskiy in a dense ice field which several icebreakers — the Australis, France’s L’Astrolabe, and the Chinese-flagged Xue Long — were unable to penetrate.

Efforts to reach the Russian vessel by sea were abandoned on Tuesday in favour of an aerial rescue using the Xue Long’s helicopter, but heavy weather and sea ice stymied efforts until yesterday.

A window of favourable weather allowed the Chinese crew to begin ferrying passengers at around 5pm Australian time (0600 GMT), with groups collected from a landing pad stamped out in the ice beside the Shokalskiy and ferried to an ice floe near the Australis.

AMSA confirmed that all passengers had reached the Australian ship at 10.16pm, some five hours after Turney first announced that the mission was under way.

Though they are free from the ice, the group is not expected to reach dry land for several weeks yet, with the Australis having to travel back to the southern city of Hobart via Australia’s Casey Antarctic base to refuel.

The Shokalskiy’s crew of 22 will remain on board until the ice breaks up and she can sail on under her own steam.

The stranded ship is well provisioned and those on board have not been in any danger.

Turney posted a number of videos documenting the rescue, including the red helicopter’s first touchdown on the landing pad, the initial group of passengers trekking across the ice and a second load taking off towards the Australis.

Board games, first-aid and other skills courses, movie marathons in the ship’s auditorium, and walks on the ice have helped to pass the time. Passengers even penned a theme song about their adventure and filmed themselves singing it on the top deck.

Though they are in remote Antarctica, the group dropped in on one of the world’s biggest New Year’s parties, broadcasting live to celebrations in New York’s Times Square from their marooned vessel.