Ship with 52 rescued Akademik Shokalskiy climate scientists and tourists is only able to make 1/4 knot (0.29 mph) in heavy ice towards open water. Latest webcam views show all ice all around the ship and no open water ahead.
More webcam views follow.
Australian Maritime Safety Authority Press release: 8.00am AEDT: 3rd January 2014
Antarctica rescue operation now complete
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s (AMSA) Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia) can confirm that the rescue operation from the Akademik Shokalskiy in Antarctica has been completed.
RCC Australia was notified at 6.15pm AEDT yesterday evening that the first group of 12 passengers had boarded the helicopter from the Xue Long at around 6pm AEDT. RCC Australia was then notified at 7.30pm AEST that the first 12 passengers had arrived at the Aurora Australis.
Five flights were conducted to take the passengers to the Aurora Australis over a distance of about 14 nautical miles. Four flights were undertaken with 12 people each flight, and the fifth flight rescued four passengers. The helicopter landed on an ice floe adjacent to the Aurora Australis.
At 10.05pm AEDT, AMSA was advised that all 52 passengers had been safely rescued and were on board the Aurora Australis.
Aurora Australis advised AMSA that helicopter operations had been completed at about 10.45pm AEDT and all passengers, luggage and equipment had been transferred.
The Aurora Australis will now start heading towards open water. The ship is currently travelling at a quarter knot in heavy ice towards open water. It will take until late evening to reach open water.
The Aurora Australis will then head towards the Casey base to complete a resupply before heading to Australia. The Aurora Australis is not expected to arrive in Australia until mid-January.
All 22 crew members of the Akademik Shokalskiy remain with the vessel.
RCC Australia has overall coordination of the incident as it is in Australia’s search and rescue region and has regular contact with the vessels involved.
The search and rescue operation commenced on Christmas morning AEDT after the Falmouth Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in the United Kingdom received a distress message via satellite from the MV Akademik Shokalskiy. The distress message and subsequent coordination of the incident was passed to RCC Australia, who is the responsible search and rescue authority for this area.
===============================================================
Other camera views.
Port Camera:
![A140022300C[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/a140022300c1.jpg?quality=83)
Stern camera:
![A140022300B[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/a140022300b1.jpg?quality=83)
Source: http://www.antarctica.gov.au/webcams/aurora
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The irony of this whole mess is amazing.
Hope the cost of all this becomes transparent sometime.
1/4 knot headway in heavy ice, who will rescue the ‘rescuers’ ?
So the original purpose was to confirm “an increasing body of evidence” showing “melting and collapse from ocean warming” as well as to retrace the steps of the Mawson expedition. I hope they are asked repeatedly whether the mission was a success by their own standards and whether they were prepared for all that ice.
Good luck!
They don’t need a bigger ice breaker; they need a bigger credulity breaker
It’s worse than we thought?
Maybe it’s my eyesight but that sure looks like a lot of ice heading towards the horizon. These visiting journalists and tourists will never forget this lesson. Many will turn into closet sceptics or head off into the kitchen any time someone mentions Antarctic thermal meltdown.
It’s more ironic than we thought!
The rescue ship Aurora Australis has CAGW form….Sept 2012…..
http://tomnelson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/another-warmist-expedition-sets-off-in.html
their new 2014 guest will be made warm and welcome as they have already crossed P&Os palm with silver.
At least they can still move. 0.25 knots is better than just the speed of the ice pushing them about.
The warmist PR machine is grinding:
Just watch the Drudge news lines:
‘GLOBAL WARMING’ INTENSIFIES…
Blizzard to Reach From NYC to Boston…
CHILL MAP…
USA ushers in 2014 with record-low temps…
Chicago Sees Biggest Snowfall In 15 Years…
NFL: Bitter cold coming to Green Bay on Sunday – High of four degrees… Winnipeg deep freeze — cold as uninhabited planet… Frozen Out: 98% of Network Stories Ignore That Ice-bound Ship Was On ‘Global Warming’ Mission…
Don’t you love it…?
I believe you can see about 13 nautical miles across water before the curviture of the earth kicks in if thats correct then there is at least 26 nautical miles of ice visible forward and aft not to mention starboard and port.
Is the Chinese Sun Dragon stuck? Lots of mileage left in this drama yet.
You couldn’t even write a song about it….maybe http://youtu.be/4c6TL30PoUk
I’m a Climate Scientist / Guardian Reporter “GET ME OUT OF HERE”
Could make good reality TV (Haven’t they’ve got BBC on board ?)
May be Ant & Deck could help (re Celebrity Jungle in UK)
Has anyone ever considered the damage to the sea ice done by these “ice breakers” ?
What I don’t understand is why a rescue alert is send out in the first place now the complete crew of 22 souls is left behind. It can’t be that an emergence only goes for passengers.
I smell a rat.
So if the Aurora was equipped for helicopters why did it land on the Chinese ship first the passengers loaded onto barges? Or am I mistaken. Doesn’t the “H” on the stern of the boat stand for “helicopter
REPLY: Two possibilities.
1. That helipad couldn’t accommodate the rotor size of the Chinese copter
2. Some silly rule about sovereignty prevented Chinese copter from landing on Australian ship.
-Anthony
1500 feet per hour at what throttle setting and limited by what, due diligence seamanship or hull limitations. 1/4 Kt. is slow but indicative of nothing in an of itself.
Really now. The posters on this thread seem kind of mean spirited. Some folks get caught in a bit of bad-weather and you get all climatey on them.
Just noting there is time-stamp on the webcam images which allows one to back up and look at the history of the images
The Aurora cycles new pics every 30 minutes (occasionally, it takes 31 minutes).
So, the Bow camera in the head post here has a link/time-stamp of:
http://images.aad.gov.au/webcams/aurora/14/A140022300A.jpg
Change it to, http://images.aad.gov.au/webcams/aurora/14/A140022331A.jpg , and you get the newest image. In this case, it was not 30 minutes but 31 minutes.
The last five digits are the time in 2400 clock, and A is the Bow camera, B is the Stern camera and C is the Port camera.
So, http://images.aad.gov.au/webcams/aurora/14/A140022230C.jpg gives you the Port camera 30 minutes ago.
When it flips over the 2400 hour clock into the next day, the 14002 will change to 14003 and the image link will change to /A140030000C.jpg at the end.
Hope that makes sense.
maroon scientists formerly marooned scientists
Forgot the ??s
@Stu
Brilliant song and video! I am still chuckling. Thanks.