The 52 passengers of the Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy which had been stuck in ice since Dec. 24 were finally rescued by a Chinese helicopter on Wednesday, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).
The rescue mission, which took over a week, successfully ended on Wednesday, Jan. 1 when the 52 passengers of board the ship were transported in a Chinese helicopter to an Australian icebreaker.
According to CNN, the crew of the Akademik Shokalskiy, comprised mostly of scientists, researchers and some tourists, were transported to the Aurora Australis, and it'll be a few weeks before the rescued research team can arrive at the Australian port of Hobart.
AMSA's John Young told the international media in a press conference that "around mid-January" the rescue mission would officially end, since the Aurora Australis has to complete a resupply mission in Casey Station, an Australian base in the Antarctic, before reaching Hobart, according to CNN.
The rescue of the people on board the stranded Russian ship was delayed due to bad weather multiple times; however, during most of Wednesday a rescue operation that lasted for many hours managed to transport the 52 passengers to a safe place.
According to the BBC, a helicopter flew from the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long, Snow Dragon, to an improvise platform on the ice and finally transported the crew and passengers of the Russian ship.
Finally, in a message posted to its Twitter account, the AMSA confirmed that the 52 passengers of the Akademik Shoakalskiy were on board the Aurora Australis, and they were all fine.
Aurora Australis has advised AMSA that the 52 passengers on the Akademik Shokalskiy are now on board.
- AMSA News (@AMSA_News) January 2nd, 2014
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