RUSSIA: Twelve Russian scientists returned home yesterday after being rescued from the wreckage of their polar research station, which was crushed by a freak wall of ice last week, writes Daniel McLaughlin in Moscow.
The researchers and their two dogs were plucked by helicopter from a drifting ice floe about 700km from the North Pole, three days after the 10m ice wall reared up and destroyed most of the Severny Polyus-32 base, and sent most of their supplies beneath the ice and frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean.
They were flown to Russia's second city, St Petersburg, from Spitzbergen, the remote Norwegian archipelago from which the rescue effort was launched.
Russian television showed the scientists arriving by plane in St Petersburg and being met by a crowd of family, friends and colleagues.
"It was difficult because 90 per cent of the station was destroyed, but we had food and everything else we needed," said Mr Vladimir Koshelev, the head of the research station.
"We knew we would be rescued in time. We stayed in contact with rescuers and exchanged messages with them every three hours."
Mr Koshelev said his team were used to the ice floe cracking and rising from the water, but the sheer size of last week's ice wall was unprecedented.
"It happens, but this time the ice wall was very large. In a very short time it swallowed up most of the living quarters and supplies," he said.
He insisted his team had fulfilled all their tasks at the Severny Polyus-32 camp, which was established last year and marked Russia's return to the North Pole after the collapse of the Soviet Union forced a drastic tightening of scientific purse strings.
"We completed the whole programme, and all the scientific equipment was rescued," Mr Koshelev said.
"The most important task - to re-establish a floating station - was achieved."