00:00:29
ITN Source
VARIOUS: More than 150 passengers and crew escape unhurt after their cruise ship hits ice in the Antarctic and starts sinking
VARIOUS: More than 150 passengers and crew escape unhurt after their cruise ship hits ice in the Antarctic and starts sinking
More than 150 passengers and crew escape unhurt after their cruise ship hits ice in the Antarctic and starts sinking. A Norwegian passenger boat in the area of a sinking cruise ship the "Explorer" safely picked up all the occupants from the lifeboats they used to flee the ship when it ran into problems off King George Island in Antarctica at 0524 GMT on Friday (November 23). The latest still images from Chile's Air Force showed the ship listing and surrounded by ice after the pasengers had been rescued. Earlier video showed numerous lifeboats moving away from the sinking ship. A fly-over of the vessel showed it listing to one side as it sank. A spokesman for G.A.P Adventures, the Canadian travel company that owns the vessel, said 154 passengers and crew had been on board the ship. The passengers and crew 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. The stricken vessel had set sail from the southern Argentine port of Ushuaia last week and was heading south toward the barren, icy continent. Pictures taken from Chilean navy helicopters showed the vessel listing severely in dark gray waters. At least 10 lifeboats and rafts could be seen. A company statement 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. G.A.P Adventures spokeswoman Susan Hayes told CNN the vessel "didn't hit an iceberg, it hit some ice ... There are ice floes, but it didn't hit a huge iceberg." 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 Pedro Tuhay, of the Argentine coast guard, told local radio that 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
