1pm AEDT: 31st December 2013
Helicopter to rescue passengers from Russian vessel in Antarctica
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s (AMSA) Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia) was advised this morning by the Aurora Australis that the ship will not be able to reach the MV Akademik Shokalskiy.
The Aurora Australis advised RCC Australia it would be at risk of becoming beset by ice itself if it continued to make further rescue attempts.
The Aurora Australis made attempts yesterday to reach the MV Akademik Shokalskiy but was driven back into open waters due to adverse weather conditions such as winds up to 30 knots and snow showers resulting in poor visibility. The ship is currently located about 16 nautical miles east of the Russian vessel.
The helicopter on board the Chinese flagged vessel Xue Long will now be used to rescue the passengers from the MV Akademik Shokalskiy.
This rescue will be a complex operation involving a number of steps and subject to factors such as weather.
The helicopter is unable to fly in the current weather conditions, and will hold off on the rescue until conditions improve. Weather conditions are unlikely to start improving until tomorrow and decisions related to carrying out the rescue may be made at short notice.
In preparation for the rescue, an area for the helicopter to land has been marked on the ice near the MV Akademik Shokalskiy.
RCC Australia has been advised that all 52 passengers will leave the MV Akademik Shokalskiy. All 22 crew members are expected to remain with the vessel.
The passengers are expected to be rescued by helicopter in groups of 12 and will be initially transported to the Xue Long. The Aurora Australis will then use its barge to transfer all 52 passengers on board their vessel. The barge can take up to 22 people at a time.
RCC Australia continues to coordinate the incident and is in regular contact with all vessels involved and continues to monitor the situation. The vessels involved are also in close contact with each other via VHF radio.
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.
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Source: http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/documents/31122013AkademikShokalskiyUpdate8_Media_Release.pdf
Hang in there guys, I’ve been driving the V8 Jag plenty this holiday, the ice should soon be gone.
The ‘eco-tourists’ have finally found the ‘tipping point’: http://pindanpost.com/2013/12/31/tourists-studying-climate-change-get-educated-discover-tipping-point/
I wish them the best and they are in my prayers. This is a difficult operation in difficult conditions. A lot more factors are at play here than one can imagine.
Paul Pierett
I’m cheering for Mother Nature. “Noooooo! Don’t let them get away!”
Let us hope that these loser academics are laughed off campus. I keep looking at the calendar to make sure it’s not April 1.
According to Newsbusters (who LINKED to WUWT from their website), Turney had this to say:
“The scientific team on board the research ship — which left New Zealand on Nov. 28 — had been recreating Australian explorer Douglas Mawson’s century-old voyage to Antarctica when it became trapped. They plan to continue their expedition after they are freed, expedition leader Chris Turney said.”
Like the brave knight getting a mere flesh wound, he will march on carrying the AGW torch until the very end.
I won’t start laughing at these supreme buffoons yet.
The media will turn this into some disaster caused by human expired CO2.
I bet (any takers) the pack of media liars and media masturbator “scientists” will claim that the Russian ship was attempting to rescue drowning polar bears…(no mention of the South Pole). We’ll see images of water vapor cooling towers, a frequent visual lie perpetrated by the liars at the Globe and Mail in Canada, a photoshopped image of a polar bear drowning being rescued by the journalists from the Guardian while wearing their corporate “News” logo.
I hope the helicopter suffers some ice related mechanical fault that prevents it from being used so that the ship of fools stew in their own swill for a week or two more. (they have provisions for weeks, Russian provisions … mmmmmmmm yummy)
In the mean time, I will enjoy a little schadenfreude.
Shoot! No need for any rescue.
All they need to do is pop the corks early on all their New Year’s champagne and let all that good old bottled CO2 do its job.
Have the Antarctic warmed up in no time at all.
The Polar Star is supposed to be on a mission to provide fuel delivery passage to deliver eight million gallons of U.S. fuel to McMurdo residents to allow the Station to remain manned and ready during the freezing winter months. Now they too have to wait for life saving fossil fuel.
As The World Turns…
So just hu was that Chinese guy Huey Long; that he gets a boat named after him ??
At this point, the faster the Wustralian climate weasels get sent home, the better. As with Jonah, the Russian ship and its crew will be a lot safer once the 🃞🃎🂾🂮 “scientists” are off the boat.
Best wishes for a safe evacuation and recovery of the passengers, and that lessons are learned to prevent a repeat of this debacle. To the crew of the ship that suffers on, safe harbors and my condolences that you are left to cleanup this multinational exhibition of reckless adgenda-driven stage craft.
May a pox strike the heart of the ABC and the Graniad for funding this fraudulent science escapade.
For the real scientists aboard this ill fated cruise who should know better – may you be cursed by the shame of a thousand generations on your family name and may your institutions of education carry the burden of your cursed infamy for eternity for your endangering of misguided young followers of your black faith.
There is a Peacock onboard. He said (as reported by The Telegraph) “We know this is a serious event and we are inconveniencing others. We are not morose or upset, just frustrated and we have no option but to settle in and keep morale high.” So they are not remorse? Does that not tell you something about the character of these people?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/antarctica/10543636/Blizzards-hamper-air-sea-rescue-efforts-for-icebound-Russian-ship.html
Mike Croift says:
December 30, 2013 at 8:48 pm
Al Gore must be aboard. Having a boatload of Warmists Iced in on the same week that the southern hemisphere is having its longest summer day sounds like the Gore Effect to me.
No, the Gore Effect temperature charts indicate that it would have to be at least 25°C colder in Commonwealth Bay to suspect his presence on board. Also, we would hear reports about him receiving the Kongens Fortjensmedalje for groundbreaking climate change research during the expedition. He has influential friends in Norway.
In ancient times an event like this would have been regarded as an omen of things to come. I.e., of the entire warmist “vessel” coming to an ironic end.
John Peter says:
December 31, 2013 at 12:09 am
There is a Peacock onboard. He said (as reported by The Telegraph) “We know this is a serious event and we are inconveniencing others. We are not morose or upset, just frustrated and we have no option but to settle in and keep morale high.” So they are not remorse? Does that not tell you something about the character of these people?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/antarctica/10543636/Blizzards-hamper-air-sea-rescue-efforts-for-icebound-Russian-ship.html
++++++++
remorse and morose are not the same thing:)
if I was down there I would rather stay on the boat then getting into a Chinese helicopter
From today’s Guardian newspaper Chris Turney, the AAE leader is quoted as saying
“we are not trapped in new ice that’s been created because its cold”
My thoughts exactly. Now the question would be to whom is the bill to be sent.
The Black Night exactly parodys the situation the ‘warmists’ find themselves in. Are they ‘brave ‘ or just stupid to continue fighting the cause which is irredeemingly lost. They are in the ‘end’ game and won’t admit it.
H/T Mario Lento
This serves as a useful allegory for the whole AGW agenda. Reality wins. Had their agenda been fully implemented in the “happy time” of environmental panic, there now would be no diesel powered icebreakers, turbine powered helicopters or fossil fuel powered heating to save their miserable lives. More ironic still, it is the Kyoto-shy, Chinese eco-criminals who will be effecting the rescue.
The sheer hypocrisy and blindness of their face-saving media spin shows that when they leave their literal as well as figurative information bubble, they will hopefully find the derision and ridicule that accompanies their grandstanding will cause them to scurry off the world stage for a very long time.
So they are going to dump the ship in the Antarctic full of human waste and oil,good job ‘s not BP!
I assume and that’s normal that they have insured this travel including a possible rescue.
I can’t find nothing about this in the MSM who pays for this
God forbid, but with bad weather and such… should the worst happen, would the death certificates read: Hypothermia brought on as a result of global warming?
The good Lord takes care of small children and fools… and I am pretty sure you will not find any small children on that boat.
Well done Falmouth picking up the ”mayday”.
These Eco-tourists should have made their own arrangements not rely on taxpayer funded rescue missions.
Will this stop their stupidity? NO.