Icebreaker Ship Runs Aground In Antarctica

Blizzard conditions caused the Aurora Australis to break free from its mooring lines at 3:15 p.m. AEDT (9:15am Mawson time), and the ship is now aground at West Arm in Horseshoe Harbour.

The ship broke from its moorings just after 3pm on Wednesday during a heavy blizzard with 67 expeditioners on board, the Australian Department of Environment confirmed.

It is now impossible to fully assess the damage inflicted on the ship, but the division said there is a breach in the hull into a space that is usually flooded with ballast water.

Sustained winds of more than 130km an hour were recorded before the ship broke its mooring lines.

A ski-equipped USA airplane will be called in to extract some 30 people from an Antarctic research station after the icebreaker set to take them home ran aground in a blizzard, officials said Thursday.

Mawson research station at Horseshoe Harbour.

All crew are safe and well, according to the Australian Antarctic Division who are responding to the incident. It arrived at Mawson on Saturday.

Weather conditions need to ease before the ship can be refloated.

“Attempts to refloat the vessel will occur when the weather conditions ease. [It] is within a few days of the area so we’re in discussions with the Chinese among other national programs”, Gales said. The Aurora Australis itself came to the rescue of Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy and its 52 crew in 2014.

The Australis called February 20 at Mawson Station, a scientific outpost in the Australian sector of East Antarctica, for resupply during an oceanographic mission in the Kerguelen Plateau region.

The Australian Antarctic Division said there was no risk to the icebreaker’s stability, or of it leaking fuel.

The ageing vessel has been battling the stormy Southern Ocean since 1989 and is scheduled to be replaced in 2019 by a new custom-built ship that will be faster, bigger and offer increased endurance.