S.A.Agulhas with Russian antarctic explorers on board arrives in Capetown

The South African survey ship S.A.Agulhas arrived in the port of Capetown at 11:00 Moscow time on Wednesday, Vasily Kalyazin, the head of the Capetown-based Antarctic Logistics Center, reported from the S.A.Agulhas.

The ship returned home from an almost three weeks' journey, having fulfilled, despite horrible weather conditions, its task of saving the 11 crew and 78 Russian antarctic explorers from the German vessel Magdalena Oldendorf, which had landed in an ice trap 400 kilometers north of the Russian antarctic research station Novolazarevskaya.

The explorers had been returning to Capetown to take a plane to Russia after a trip to the South Pole. On June 11 however, their ship had got trapped in pack ice and could not get out on its own.

According to Vladimir Kuchin, the deputy head of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, all antarctic explorers are alive and well. The first group of explorers is leaving for St. Petersburg at 13:45 Moscow time on Friday, July 12. Two other groups are leaving on the evening of July 11 and on the morning of July 12.