A helicopter hovers over an ice field in Antarctica.
Corbis
Antarctica Mission: Lost in the Ice: Photos
View Caption + #1: June 26, 2012
-- A team of explorers are hoping drill 100 feet beneath the Antarctic ice to bring back the bodies of three American fliers who died on a remote island off Antarctica 65 years ago. The lost men are shown here, from left: Ensign Max Lopez - NA, "Bud" Hendersin, ARM1C and Fred Williams, AMM1C. The explorers want logistical help from U.S. military officials, who say the project is too dangerous. Read the full story here.
courtesy family members
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The George One is seen being prepped for its final flight. The plane was on a mapping mission on Dec. 30, 1946 when it became lost in a blizzard, struck a ridge line on remote Thurston Island in West Antarctica and exploded.
US Navy
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The rescue aircraft "George 3" searches the ice for the crash site of the "George One" in January 1947.
US Navy
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The site of the crash of the George One is seen from above with names of dead crewmen written on the wing. Survivors (center top) wave to their crew mates in the George 2 flying overhead. The search plane discovered them 12 days after the crash. The life raft (upper left) had been set ablaze with octane fuel salvaged from the wreck by crewman Robbie Robbins. The crew survived in the tail section (top right). The men are buried under the wing just to the left of the line Robbins painted on the wing to notify the search plane of the fatalities.
U.S. Navy
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The rescue aircraft, "George 2" is seen after hunting for the George One over Antarctica.
US Navy
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Two members of a rescue party paddle back to the amphibious craft George 2 after reaching the crash site.
US Navy
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Ensign Max Lopez was one of the men who died in the crash of George One.
courtesy of family members
View Caption + #8: Fred Williams -- another of the lost men.
courtesy of family members
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"Bud" Hendersin -- the third man who perished in the 1946 crash. Family members of the three lost men say that over the years they have been promised by Navy officials that the bodies would be recovered if certain safety and logistical problems could be met. For their part, Navy officials say they recognize the families' concerns recovering the MIAs from Antarctica, but the operation is still too dangerous. PHOTOS: Forgotten Discoveries of Scott's Antarctica
courtesy of family members
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All 52 passengers who spent Christmas and New Year trapped on an icebound Russian research vessel in Antarctica were airlifted from the ice Thursday in a dramatic rescue mission.
A Chinese helicopter which landed on a makeshift landing pad next to the marooned ship ferried the scientists, tourists and journalists in groups of 12 to an Australian government supply ship, the Aurora Australis.
The passengers had been stuck for 10 days in thick pack ice 100 nautical miles east of the French base of Dumont d'Urville after their vessel Akademik Shokalskiy became frozen in place.
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Christine Hush/National Science Foundation
Three icebreaking ships had been unable to clear a path to it.
"Aurora Australis has advised AMSA that the 52 passengers from the Akademik Shokalskiy are now on board," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said late Thursday.
Expedition leader Chris Turney expressed his "great relief" that the complex operation, which had been fraught with setbacks and challenges, finally went off without a hitch.
"We've made it to the Aurora Australis safe and sound. A huge thanks to the Chinese and the (government's) Australian Antarctic Division for all their hard work," Turney tweeted
The Sydney Morning Herald, which has a reporter aboard the Aurora Australis, said many of those brought off the Russian ship were relieved, with one woman crying tears of joy.
"It really has been an emotional roller coaster," Joanne Sim told the newspaper.
Their ordeal began on December 24 when a southerly front and blizzard trapped the Shokalskiy in a dense ice field which several icebreakers -- the Australis, France's L'Astrolabe and the Chinese-flagged Xue Long -- were unable to penetrate.
Efforts to reach the Russian vessel by sea were abandoned on Tuesday in favour of an aerial rescue using the Xue Long's helicopter, but heavy weather and sea ice stymied efforts until late Thursday.
A window of favorable weather allowed the Chinese crew to begin ferrying passengers at around 5 pm Australian time, with groups collected from a landing pad stamped out in the ice beside the Shokalskiy and ferried to an ice floe near the Australis.
AMSA confirmed that all passengers had reached the Australian ship at 10.16pm, some five hours after Turney first announced that the mission was underway.
Though they are free from the ice the group is not expected to reach dry land for several weeks yet, with the Australis having to travel back to the southern city of Hobart via Australia's Casey Antarctic base to refuel.