ARGENTINA: Passengers rescued after Antarctica cruise ship accident

Cruise liner from Canadian travel company hits ice in the Antarctic and begins sinking. More than 150 passengers and crew escape uninjured. More than 150 passengers and crew escaped unhurt after their cruise ship hit ice in the Antarctic and started sinking on Friday (November 23), the ship's owner and coast guard officials said. A Norwegian passenger boat in the area safely picked up all the occupants of the MS Explorer from the lifeboats they used to flee the ship when it ran into problems off King George Island in Antarctica at 0524 GMT, the Explorer's owners said. "The Argentine coast guard received a call from the boat Explorer -- which is a passenger boat under the flag of Liberia that had aboard 100 passengers and 54 crew --informing that while navigated close to Antarctica it had collided with an iceberg which caused a rupture in the boat and water began to enter in. So, the coast guard immediately called three boats that were in the zone, informing them to hurry to rescue the boat that was in an emergency," said the Buenos Aires coast guard chief Miguel Reyes. The passengers were being taken to Chile's Eduardo Frei base in the Antarctic from where they would later be flown to Punta Arenas in southern Chile. "At the moment it is listing -- as in it is on an angle close to 45 degrees -- meaning it is almost impossible to prevent it sinking. It is a critical situation and the Captain decided to abandon the boat, but all of the passengers and crew of the boat are being taken to a Chilean naval base that is close to the naval base Frei, to then be taken to Punta Arenas, Chile," Reyes said. The stricken vessel, owned by Canadian travel company Gap Adventures, had set sail from the southern Argentine port of Ushuaia last week and was heading south toward the barren, icy continent, officials said. According to the Argentine coast guard it was flying a Liberian flag. Pictures showed the vessel listing severely amid dark gray waters. Gap Adventures said in a statement a total of 100 passengers and crew were on board the ship. Earlier reports had put the number at 154, but a spokesman said that was the ship's maximum capacity. It said the passengers included Americans, British, Canadians, Australians, Dutch, Japanese, Argentines and other nationalities, and that the families of those on board were being contacted. The Explorer usually makes two-week cruises around the Antarctic, costing some 4,000 pounds ($8,000) per cabin. Smaller than most cruise ships, it is able to enter narrower bays off the continent and scientists are on board to brief passengers on the region's geology and climate change, the spokesman added. King George Island lies about 700 miles (1,127 km) south of Cape Horn, the tip of South America, and is the largest of the South Shetland islands. Cruise trip travel has grown in Antarctica in recent years and Tuhay said 52 cruises were expected at the southern port of Ushuaia during this year's peak season from October to April.

ITN Source | November 24, 2007

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