South Korea’s Aaron icebreaker on Wednesday started pulling the distressed Russian trawler Sparta out of an ice trap in the Antarctic, Andrei Polomar, head of the company that owns the Sparta, said.
The Sparta, with a crew of 32, sent out a distress call early on December 16 after it was punctured 1.5 m (5ft) below the waterline and started to list near the Antarctic ice shelf. The boat listed 13 degrees and the crew covered the hole with tarred canvass in a bid to stop the leakage.
A New Zealand Air Force plane earlier made a mercy flight to the Antarctic to drop a pump, pipes and fuel to the Sparta.
Among the 32-member crew are 15 Russians, 16 Indonesians and 1 Ukrainian.
The Aaron will pull have to pull the Sparta for about 100 nautical miles (115 miles). The route is expected to take 12 to 24 hours, Polomar told RIA Novosti.
After that, the Sparta will head for the port of Lyttelton in New Zealand for maintenance. It will have to cover some 3,700 km (2,300 miles).
