Antarctic air rescue set to start

1 January 2014 Last updated at 22:25 GMT

Antarctic air rescue for ice-bound ship due to start

Scientists and others from the trapped ship have been preparing an area for a helicopter to land on the ice nearby

Helicopter operations to rescue scientists aboard an ice-bound ship in the Antarctic are likely to begin shortly, say officials.

Weather conditions have improved in the area and are expected to stay favourable for the next 36 hours, said Australia-based rescue co-ordinators.

The ship, the Akademik Shokalskiy, with 74 passengers and and crew aboard, has been stuck since Christmas Eve.

Earlier efforts by three different icebreakers to free it failed.

The plan now is to ferry groups of passengers by helicopter to the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long from where they will be taken by sea to the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis.

The helicopter operations alone are expected to take five hours.

Complex

The rescue will be a complex operation involving a number of steps and subject to factors such as the weather, said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCC).

It has been told that all 52 passengers - comprising scientists and tourists - will leave the Shokalskiy. All 22 crew are expected to remain on board.

The research ship has been stuck for more than a week

The passengers will be rescued by the Chinese helicopter in groups of 12 and initially transported a distance of 12 nautical miles to the Xue Long (Snow Maiden).

The rescue is expected to be undertaken in a total of seven flights - the first five involving passengers, the remainder ferrying luggage and equipment.

Passengers will then be taken by barge across clear water for about two nautical miles to the Aurora Australis.

The Shokalskiy was trapped on Christmas Eve by thick sheets of ice driven by strong winds, about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart - the capital of the Australian state of Tasmania.

Despite being trapped, the scientists have continued their experiments, measuring temperature and salinity through cracks in the surrounding ice.

The vessel is being used by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition to follow the route explorer Douglas Mawson travelled a century ago.