Russian, Chinese ships escape Antarctic's icy grip

The Akademik Shokalskiy research ship got stuck Dec 24, forcing the evacuation of 52 passengers by helicopter last week, while the 22 crew members remained on board The helicopter had been dispatched by the Chinese icebreaker  (Snow Dragon), and its crew of 101, which itself got stuck in an attempt to reach the Russian vessel. which was blocked by an ice burg but both the ship and helicopter reached ice free waters earlier this week.