Antarctica: Shokalskiy Passengers Rescued
All 52 scientists and tourists on board a ship trapped by ice since Christmas Eve have been airlifted to safety.

新闻背景：
俄罗斯科考船“绍卡利斯基院士”号被困南极超过一周后，中国、澳大利亚和法国的3艘破冰船此前的救援行动均因天气原因以及冰层厚度超出破冰能力而告失败。最终，经过多方讨论，决定用中国“雪龙”号上的直升机疏散俄罗斯科考船上的乘客。
中澳两国的救援船——中国雪龙号和澳大利亚南极光号均停泊在围困俄罗斯船的浮冰区边缘地带，它们与后者的距离分别为11.8海里和14.6海里（1海里等于1.852公里）。
经过努力，所有52名被困乘客及其行李已全部由中国直升机运出，并已转移到南极光号上。

We’ve just heard that a helicopter, the Chinese icebreaker, Julong is heading over to check out our helipad just behind me. If it all goes well, we’ll be off in about an hour’s time.
In the end it was help from above which came to the rescue of the stranded scientists and tourists, with their ship firmly wedged in 3m thick ice, the 52 passengers from the Akademik Shokalskiy waited patiently for their turn in the helicopter. A dozen people at a time were flown off the ice.
It’s first of the helicopters to take us home.
Thanks, everyone.
The Akademik got stuck on Christmas eve, three ships try to come and set her free—French vessel L’astrolabe, Australia’s Aurora Australis, and the Chinese Julong, meaning snow dragon, all failed to break the ice and set the Akademik free. But the snow Dragon stayed in free water, and when the weather cleared, its chopper airlifted the passengers to safety. They are now on the Aurora Australis ready for the 15,000 nautical mile journey to Tasmania.
With a rescue by sea not possible, the chopper was the last hope. The passengers foot in some legwork and created their own temporary helipad. But not everyone has left the ship, rescue coordinators in Australia are in touch with the 22 Russian crew members who’ve stayed on board. It’s fully operational, it’s fully prepared to be in the ice. It’s well stored and well provisioned, so the risks will be low for the crew.
It was a Christmas and New Year the stranded passengers won’t forget, at least now, they can properly celebrate, but they may well face criticism too, with 3 working ships diverted and what’s been a difficult and expensive operation.
Johansson Samuels, Sky News, Sydney.