NORTH POLE: Russian rescuers hope to pluck 12 stranded scientists from an ice floe near the North Pole today, after a freak wall of ice crushed their research station and plunged it beneath the Arctic Ocean.
"A huge wall of ice reared up, initially three to five metres high, then seven to 10 metres high," said Mr Vladimir Koshelev, head of the Severny Polyus-32 base, which became Russia's first such project since the collapse of the Soviet Union when it began work last April.
"The wall immediately crushed our accommodation and offices but, most importantly, also the place where all the supplies were kept," Mr Koshelev said.
"In about half a day, the ice wall swallowed up about 90 per cent of the base. I don't believe such a thing has ever been seen before at a polar station."
A helicopter was being prepared for the long-distance rescue attempt. Its leader said the loss of the research base and the plight of the scientists was Russia's worst crisis near the North Pole for more than half a century.
"We will fly an Mi-26 helicopter from Arkhangelsk to Murmansk and then to Spitzbergen, about 745 kilometres from which the station is located," said Mr Artur Chilingarov, the parliamentary deputy and president of the Russian Association of Polar Explorers, who is co-ordinating the rescue.
"No one has drifted or flown before in the region where the station is drifting, so this demands a special level of professionalism from the crew of the rescue helicopter," he said.
"We are not panicked by the situation, even though there will be tricky moments in the evacuation." The Severny Polyus-32 base was founded on a shifting Arctic ice mass last April, and ocean currents have since carried it around almost a full circle of the North Pole. Russian television said the scientists were about 700 kilometres from the Pole last night, somewhere in the region of Franz Josef Land.
The researchers had been recording weather patterns and studying the effect of climate change in the far north, and were due to leave their ice floe later this month.
Russia established the world's first floating polar station on May 21st, 1937, and established a series of bases called Severny Polyus - "North Pole" in Russian - throughout the Cold War. The United States answered with its own camps in the far north, which was seen as a possible theatre of battle between the superpowers.
Moscow closed Severny Polyus-31 in 1991 because of a cash crisis, and Severny Polyus-32 marked Russia's return to the region until it was destroyed on Wednesday evening.
The rescue helicopter was ready to set off overnight or today after blizzards prevented takeoff yesterday and forced the cancellation of two planned airdrops of warm clothes, food and fuel.
Ms Natalya Vershova, spokeswoman for the State Meteorological Service that is helping co-ordinate the rescue, said the scientists would have to huddle together in two shelters after four others sank beneath the ice and waves.
"But the researchers have food, clothing, satellite communication equipment and two diesel-fuelled generators," she added.
Mr Koshelev said chaos reigned after the ice wall reared up and flattened the base, but the scientists had managed to salvage enough food for about five days.
"It was an emergency, extreme, 'all-hands-on-deck' situation, but at least some food survived," he said.
"We are all in good health, in good form. We are all alive and well. We will go on gradually, and wait for the helicopter."