S. African Team to Sail to Antarctic for Rescue Mission

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 17, 2002

S. African Team to Sail to Antarctic for Rescue Mission

A South African rescue team will sail to the Antarctic from Cape Town later on Sunday to rescue 107 Russians and Germans who are marooned on a ship trapped by pack ice.

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A South African rescue team will sail to the Antarctic from Cape Town later on Sunday to rescue 107 Russians and Germans who are marooned on a ship trapped by pack ice.

Gerald Hagemann, spokesman for the rescue mission, said that they were to have sailed at 4 p.m. (1400GMT), but the departure was postponed for technical reasons until 6 p.m. (1600GMT).

The rescue team, aboard the Antarctic research ship SA Agulhas,are heading into minus 35-degree's temperatures on the icy continent.

It is believed that the 18,000-ton Magdalena Oldendorff, out ofHamburg, is trapped at 41 minutes east of the Greenwich meridian and 69 degrees, 41 minutes south.

Russian scientists stationed at the Novolazarevskaya base had completed their research and were returning home when the disasterstruck.

Hagemann said that the details of the rescue operation would ultimately depend on weather conditions.

"Temperatures can drop to a mind-boggling minus 50 degrees. We've looked at a number of different scenarios. Ideally we hope to be able to cut a path through the ice," he said.

The SA Agulhas, with a Russian ice pilot and two SA Air Force Oryx helicopters on board, plans to link up with an Argentinean naval ice-breaker the Almirante Irizae, at the edge of the pack-ice, 250 nautical miles from the trapped ship.

Almirante Irizae will land the helicopters as close as it can to the Magdalena Oldendorff.

"We hope to be able to bring the Oldendorff back to Cape Town. If we cannot, we will evacuate 79 non-essential crew members and leave a skeleton staff on board the ship with enough supplies and fuel to see them through the winter," Hagemann said.

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