KEY POINTS:
Three New Zealanders are among the crew of a British fishing trawler trapped in ice in the Ross Sea in Antarctica.
Early yesterday the Argos Georgia received an airdrop of an engine part via the United States Air Force, and it is expected to get under way again today.
The Argos Georgia's main engine failed on December 23, leaving the vessel and its 25 crew adrift and surrounded by ice.
US Air Force loadmasters took three attempts to successfully drop an engine piston and casing, plus supplies, from approximately 121m while travelling at 220km/h, to the trawler yesterday morning.
USAF Lieutenant-Colonel Jim McGann, the New Zealand-based Operation Deep Freeze commander, told Radio New Zealand repairs using the parts should enable the trawler to sail back to Christchurch.
The repairs would take about 12 hours.
The USAF C-17 Globemaster III flew out of Christchurch with the 68kg parts at the request of the New Zealand Rescue Co-ordination Centre, which had been told the Argos Georgia had lost all main engine power a week ago and become frozen in the ice floes off the Ross Ice Shelf.
The drop included newspapers and a big box of chocolates.
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.
Colonel McGann said currents were moving the trawler deep into pack ice towards Antarctica and the vessel would have become trapped if it had been disabled for much longer.
Peter Thomson, director of operations of Argos Georgia Ltd, which owns the vessel, said the reason for the engine failure would not be known until it was examined on the vessel's return to the Port of Lyttelton next month.
- NZPA
