After 10 days stranded far from home, all 52 passengers from a ship stuck in Antarctic ice have now been transferred by helicopter to an Australian icebreaker.
"It's 100% we're off! A huge thanks to all," tweeted Chris Turney, an Australian professor among the group of scientists, journalists and tourists marooned on the ship.
A helicopter from a nearby Chinese icebreaker ferried passengers Thursday to the Australian icebreaker, the Aurora Australis.
The rescue is the latest chapter in a saga that began Christmas Eve after the Russian-flagged MV Akademik Shokalskiy got stuck in unusually thick ice.
Officials abandoned a succession of other rescue attempts in recent days because of the treacherous conditions in the region.
High spirits stuck in Antarctic ice Photographic negatives left a century ago at an expedition base at Cape Evans, Antarctica, were discovered and conserved by New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust on December 10.
A small box of 22 exposed but unprocessed photographic negatives was frozen in a solid block of ice for nearly 100 years. The photos were taken during Ernest Shackleton's 1914-1917 Ross Sea Party.
The cellulose nitrate negatives were found clumped together in a small box in the darkroom of Herbert Ponting, the photographer for the ill-fated 1911-1912 expedition of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott. Members of Shackleton's team were forced to take shelter in Scott's hut after their ship, the Aurora, blew out to sea. A print from a 1914 negative found at Scott's last hut at Cape Evans shows Ernest Shackleton's scientist, Alexander Stevens, on the deck of the Aurora.
Ten members of Shackleton's group were stranded when the Aurora blew out to sea. Three men died before they were rescued in 1916.
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Antarctic expedition photos found Earlier Thursday, Australian authorities had said a plan involving the helicopter and a barge was put on hold because of shifting ice conditions.
But the new approach, which skipped the use of the barge, got under way later in the day. Turney posted videos showing the helicopter arriving on a makeshift helipad on the ice near the trapped ship and taking off into the crisp blue sky.
Robert Darvill, chief mate on the Aurora Australis, told CNN that the 52 new passengers on board were very happy to be there and kept thanking the icebreaker's crew for their efforts.
"They are on their second dinner of the night right now," he said.
cuddle: CNN.com
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