KEY POINTS:
United States Air Force loadmasters dropped an engine piston and casing from approximately 121m above the Ross Sea ice this morning to a British fishing boat which has been stranded in the ice for a week.
USAF Lieutenant Colonel Jim McGann, the New Zealand-based Deep Freeze commander, told Radio New Zealand that repairs using the parts should enable the trawler to sail back to Christchurch.
The C-17 Globemaster III flew out of Christchurch with the 68kg parts at the request of the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Centre, which had been told the Argos Georgia, lost all main engine power a week ago and became frozen in the ice floes off the Ross Ice Shelf, north of Scott Base.
The US Air Force said other options to rescue the ship were either no longer available or would have taken another 10 days, the Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper reported.
The 36m vessel had been chartered for long-lining for toothfish and is registered in St Helena, an island in the South Atlantic, and owned by the Argos Group, based in the Falklands
The flight crew, from the USAF 446th Airlift Wing and 62nd Airlift Wing, dropped the parts while travelling at a speed of 220km/h just after midnight.
New Zealand is responsible for coordinating rescues and marine safety in the Ross Sea.
Argos Oceanic Ltd of Bermuda, which chartered the vessel for toothfish voyages, was last year fined $13,500 in the Christchurch District Court for spilling fuel oil in Lyttelton Harbour.
The Argos Georgia Ltd fishing company recently joined two New Zealand fishing companies, Sanford Ltd and New Zealand Long Line Ltd, in applying for assessment of the Antarctic toothfish longline fishery in the Ross Sea by the Marine Stewardship Council.
The fishery is made up of 21 vessels from nine countries.
- NZPA
