MIRACLE RESCUE FROM ARCTIC ICE

11 Dec 2008

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On thin ice - photo from rescue ship, the Atlantic Enterprise. Top right, a Cessna 337.

TWO men have had a miraculous rescue from floating ice after the aircraft they were flying ditched in Arctic waters.

The men were ferrying a Cessna Skymaster 337 twin from the USA to Sweden when both engines failed. The pilot radioed a Mayday distress call and glided the aircraft to an ice floe off the coast of Baffin Island in the Hudson Strait, northern Canada.

According to a report in Canada’s Globe and Mail, the aircraft touched down safely, but the 10cm thick ice gave way almost immediately.

“The pilot and the other man on board were just able to scramble out the window before the plane vanished into the freezing waters, taking their life raft with it,” says the Globe and Mail report.

“The men were wearing insulated survival suits, but had nothing with which to make a fire. With the temperature dropping as night fell Sunday, they knew they had to stay warm to survive, so they started walking. They were still pacing the ice floe nearly 18 hours later when a shrimping vessel hove into view yesterday morning and rescued them.

"They were very healthy," said Bo Mortensen, captain of the Atlantic Enterprise, which had been about 180 nautical miles away when it received the mayday call Sunday night. "One of them was frostbitten on his feet. They were smiling and crying."

The men, identified as Australian Oliver Edwards and Dane Troels Hansen, both now living in Sweden, were later picked up by a Canadian Forces Cormorant helicopter and flown to Iqaluit, 150 kilometres to the north. They spent the night at Qikiqtani General Hospital, where spokeswoman Yasmina Pepa said they were "alive and in good condition."

Full story and amazing photo of the rescue here.