- Thu Jan 02, 2014 12:48 pm
#34537
Helicopter rescues all 52 passengers from stranded ship in Antarctica. All 52 passengers who were stranded aboard an ice-locked ship in Antarctica for more than a week were rescued by helicopter early Thursday, officials said. The Akademic Shokalskiy sent out a distress call on Christmas morning after it became surrounded by sea ice while on a scientific mission more than 1,700 miles south of Australia.
The scientific team on board had been recreating Australian explorer Douglas Mawson's 1911 to 1913 voyage to Antarctica with the purpose of proving the ice was thinner than when Mawason sailed the same route in 1911. Amazing the team ended up proving the ice is much thicker, wile Mawason successfully sailed that same route in a smaller boat, not even the world's best ice breakers could get through the area. The Captain of the Aurora Australis ice-breaker estimated the ice to be 15 feet thick and recalled that 10 years ago his ship would have been able to cut through the ice since it was less than 8 feet thick. He warned that if the ice continue to expand at the current rate there will be major disruptions of shipping routes in the coming years.
