Is The Xue Long Trapped Now?
By Paul Homewood
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25558276
There are now reports that the Chinese icebreaker, Xue Long, may be stuck in the ice. The BBC report:
A rescue mission for a ship stuck in ice in Antarctica is under threat as reports have emerged that one of the assisting vessels may itself be stuck.
Fifty-two passengers and four crew members were due to be evacuated by helicopter from China’s Xue Long ship as soon as conditions allowed.
However, the Xue Long has barely moved in a day and may be stuck in the ice.
The research vessel Akademik Shokalskiy has been trapped for nearly a week with 74 scientists, tourists and crew.
The ship is stocked with food and is in no danger, the team on board says.
The planned air evacuation required that the two icebreakers in the immediate area – the Xue Long and the Australian Aurora Australis – be positioned close to each other in open water, clear of the pack ice.
However, the captain of the Xue Long has told the Shokalskiy that he is keeping his vessel in a "holding position".
The Aurora Australis, is now understood to be planning to carve through the dense thick pack to assist the Xue Long.
The initial plan had been for a helicopter from the Xue Long to carry people in groups of 15 up from the pack ice next to the Shokalskiy.
The airlifted passengers would then be transferred by a small boat, deployed from the Australian icebreaker, onto the Aurora Australis.
The expedition members would then have travelled to Australia’s Antarctic base at Casey some four days’ voyage away.
However, if the Chinese vessel is also stuck and the Australian vessel cannot help it reach clear water, there will be no airlift.
Under the initial plan, the remaining crew members would have stayed on board until another, more powerful US icebreaker arrived in up to 10 days’ time, the BBC’s Andrew Luck-Baker reports from on board the Akademik Shokalskiy
However, it may now be that all of those on board may have to wait for the US icebreaker, the Polar Star, he adds.
Earlier attempts by Chinese and French icebreakers to reach the ship were also foiled by the thick ice.
The Shokalskiy was trapped on Christmas Eve by thick sheets of ice, driven by strong winds, about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart – the capital of the Australian state of Tasmania.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
What an utter fiasco and those climate morons on board are still lapping it up. When they get out they need a good slap for putting so many other lives in danger.
Reblogged this on CraigM350.
I thought the Chinese icebreaker was named the “Snow Dragon”.
Is the “Xue Long” a different one or is that the Chinese name?
There seems to have been little about this on the BBC since the Schumacher accident;
Yeah. Apparently Xue Long means Snow Dragon in Chinese.
Yes, for the BBC one injured German car driver trumps 34 actually dead Russians, then a Royal taking up adult further education studies, which comes way in front of a Russian boat load of Climate Scientists masquerading as tourists stuck in rapidly negatively melting ice.
“Negatively melting” LOL!!!
This just keeps getting better and better. Global Warming scientists caught in what they claim is “disappearing sea ice”. Then a Chinese Ice breaker from the largest emitter of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the world attempts to rescue them and fails and gets stuck. Meanwhile a second ice breaker from Australia which recently elected a new government that completely rejects the climate change agenda is trying to rescue the Chinese ship so it’s helicopter can then rescue the trapped global warming scientists.
This keeps up we’re going to need a score card. But there is no doubt that right now it’s Antartica and it’s “disappearing sea ice” 2, man 0. And the carbon foot print caused by those global warming scientists failing to respect the power of mother nature continues to grow and grow.
Yes, it’s trapped…
6.30am Wednesday 1st NZT
National Radio reports Xue Long (Snow Dragon) trapped in ice, helicopter uplift delayed indefinitely until Aurora can break through to free Xue Long.
…So not only are they trapped, but they are trapped in enough to the point they don’t want to do the helicopter rescue until it is clear they themselves can get free. Of course, quickly the Aurora told them they don’t think it is even possible for the Australian ship to get to the Chinese one, so we get this…
7.15am Wednesday 1st NZT
National Radio reports that Xue Long has radioed it is trapped in ice.
It appears doubtful that Aurora will attempt to break a passage to Xue Long, now waiting on Polar Star to arrive in approximately 10 – 12 days.
…hope they really do like that view they have, they will likely be seeing it for a while!
And since the rate of Ice Growth has already resulted in their initial “2-4 nautical miles from open sea” turning into “16 nautical miles” in only a handful of days, who knows how chaotic their future will really be
Xue Long isn’t trapped….
http://xuelong.chinare.cn/xuelong/index.php
And when even the Polar Star can’t reach them, an even bigger Russian ship will give it a shot in about a month. How many ships will be stuck by then?