Andrew Peacock, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
An image from one of the passengers of the Akademik Shokalskiy shows the Russian research ship icebound off Antarctica.
Maritime safety officials began preparations on Tuesday for a helicopter rescue of scientists and others aboard a chartered research ship that has been stuck in Antarctic ice for a week.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said all 52 passengers aboard the Russian ship, the Akademik Shokalskiy, would be airlifted to a Chinese icebreaker. The ship's 22 crew members would stay behind, the authority said.
Bad weather in the area made it very unlikely that a helicopter rescue would begin before Wednesday, the authority said. But in preparation, a landing zone had been marked on the ice near the Shokalskiy.
The 233-foot Shokalskiy became stuck last Tuesday when strong winds pushed loose pack ice up against it near Cape de la Motte, about 1,700 miles south of Hobart, Tasmania. The ship set sail from Bluff, New Zealand, on Dec. 8, and is carrying scientists, tourists and several journalists on what is billed as the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, a planned monthlong voyage to study the changes to the environment of East Antarctica since the region was first explored by the Australian geologist Douglas Mawson a century ago.
The authority, which is coordinating the rescue, said the crew of an Australian icebreaker, the Aurora Australis, had advised officials earlier Tuesday that the ship would not be able to make another attempt to reach the Shokalskiy. The icebreaker "would be at risk of becoming beset by ice itself if it continued to make further rescue attempts," the authority said in a statement.
The passengers are expected to be airlifted in groups of 12 and will be taken to the Chinese ship, the Xue Long. The passengers will then be transferred to the Aurora Australis, by barge, the authority said.
Snow and winds of up to 35 miles an hour on Monday had forced the Aurora Australis to abandon its first attempt to reach the icebound ship. The icebreaker had been diverted from a resupply operation at an Australian Antarctic base, Casey Station, about 1,000 miles to the west.
The Xue Long, which was about two months into a five-month national Antarctic expedition when it was asked to help, failed in a similar attempt on Saturday, but has remained in the area. The Xue Long's helicopter will be used in the evacuation.
The safety authority statement did not say where the evacuees would be taken on the Aurora, but in addition to Casey Station, there is a French station, Dumont d'Urville, about 100 miles to the west, and several other stations to the east along the Ross Sea, including the United States base, McMurdo, which is the largest on the continent.
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 phone interview on Sunday that those on board had been told of the possibility of a helicopter rescue, and that there was a sense of relief.
Dr. Turney said that all aboard were well and that morale was good, echoing assessments by some passengers posted in short YouTube videos. In one posted over the weekend, an expedition member named Mary Regan stood on the ice with the stranded ship behind her.
"Having a wonderful time," she said, looking around. "You can see we have this wonderful snowy wonderland."
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