The trapped Chinese research vessel and icebreaker Xuelong made a successful escape through heavy Antarctic ice on Tuesday at 6:30 pm Beijing time (1030 GMT), after rescuing passengers from a stranded Russian vessel.

The icebreaker broke its way out from heavy ice and navigated into open waters. It was trapped since Friday, one day after its helicopter evacuated all 52 passengers on the stranded Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy to the Australian ship Aurora Australis.

After attempts to broaden an "ice-breaking runway" on Monday, the Xuelong started to warm up its engine early Tuesday morning.

The vessel had a difficult time trying to make a rightward turnaround, which started at 5 am Beijing time, because of the thick ice and the snow covering the floes.

In the initial stage, the favorable westerly wind blew the floes around the icebreaker to quickly move to the east, but no cracks were seen between the floes. The Xuelong only moved 200 meters in the first three hours.

No breakout was made until about 5:50 pm, when the Xuelong pulled a 100 degree turn and strongly pushed away the ice.

Under the huge blow, a big floe right ahead suddenly split up and a channel to open waters showed itself. The Xuelong quickly voyaged through the channel and broke free of the heavy ice.

The Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy, which remains trapped after the Xuelong's successful breakout, was also managing to navigate at a slow speed after a crack appeared in the ice, its captain Igor Kiselyov told the Itar-Tass news agency Tuesday.

"We are going at a slow speed and by changing course, we have moved forward already more than 20 miles," he added. He also acknowledged the sailing conditions were "hard," with "thick fog" and visibility of "no more than 500 meters."

The Polar Star, a US Coast Guard icebreaker that had been dispatched to the aid of the ship, is expected to arrive on Sunday.

Global Times - Agencies