A Chinese helicopter arrives to rescue some of the 52 passengers trapped for more than a week on the icebound Russian research ship MV Akademik Shokalskiyin in this Jan. 2, 2014, file photo provided by Australasian Antarctic Expedition.CANBERRA, Australia – An Australian icebreaker carrying 52 passengers who were retrieved from an icebound ship in the Antarctic resumed its journey home on Saturday, leaving behind another two icebreakers trapped in pack ice.
The Aurora Australis will continue its interrupted resupply mission to Australia’s Antarctic base Casey Station before returning to the Australian island state of Tasmania in mid-January with the rescued scientists, journalists and tourists.
It had been slowly cracking through thick ice toward open water after a Chinese ship’s helicopter on Thursday plucked the passengers from their stranded Russian research ship Akademik Shokalskiy and carried them to an ice floe near the Australian ship. But on Friday afternoon, the crew of the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, that had provided the helicopter said they were worried about their own ship’s ability to move through the ice.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre, which oversaw the rescue, told the Aurora to stay in the area in case help was needed. Under international conventions observed by most countries, ships’ crews are obliged to take part in such rescues and the owners carry the costs.
The U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday that one of its cutters, the Polar Star, is responding to a Jan. 3 request from Australia, Russia and China to assist the two trapped ships. The Polar Star was cutting short its planned stop in Sydney, Australia, to assist the Russian and Chinese ships because they may not be able to free themselves from the ice.