Being trapped among icebergs, searching for MH370

Source: Qingdao news    2014-05-08   09:15:31

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"Xue Long" was the scientific research vessel of China's 30th Antarctic scientific expedition. During this expedition, "Xue Long" was very busy: it successfully rescued the Russian "Akademik Shokalskiy” scientific research vessel, but it was surrounded by icebergs. After escaping, it drove to Australia and actively participated in the search and rescue for MH370 ... Yesterday Jiao Yutian, a senior engineer at the School of Marine Environment of Ocean University of China, returned to school. As the captain of expedition's Southern Ocean team, he participated in this series of major events and he also told reporters about the thrilling things in Antarctica.

Story 1 Setting up temporary airport to rescue Russian crews

The 30th Chinese Antarctic scientific expedition officially started from Shanghai Terminal on November 7, 2013. "Xue Long" carried a total of 152 scientific expedition members. This was Jiao Yutian’s tenth Antarctic expedition. He was the captain of the expedition's Southern Ocean team and leaded a group of marine experts to conduct surveys in the polar area and oceans.

Jiao Yutian told reporters that during the Antarctic expedition, "Xue Long" encountered severe ice conditions that were rare for many years. Most often, no matter how cautiously you drive, you may not be able to escape all the icebergs. On December 25, 2013, "Xue Long" received a notice from the Australian Maritime Search and Rescue Center that the Russian "Akademik Shokalskiy" was trapped in Antarctica and "Xue Long" was the closest vessel with the straight line distance of 585 nautical miles.

"We were heading from the Zhongshan Station to the Ross Sea at that time, and suddenly we received the news that the Russian "Akademik Shokalskiy "was trapped in Antarctica. At that time, 52 passengers were trapped on board and the situation was critical. We must immediately rush forward. ” Jiao Yutian said, “at that time we were going to use the KA32 helicopter to rescue, but the KA32 helicopter was too large to find a suitable floating ice for docking, the rescue was at a deadlock for a while.” Jiao Yutian disembarked with two members to search for a place where “Xue Long” was able to dock. But they found that there was a large iceberg not far from the trapped vessel, and there was a possibility of collision at any time. It was impossible to rescue through sailing. "Fortunately, a good idea occurred in our mind at the crucial moment. We found more than 20 large wooden boards to set up a temporary airport and then began to rescue."

"The helicopter was hovering over a piece of floating ice, and there was a thick layer of snow on the ice. One of the team members just jumped down and suddenly disappeared." Jiao Yutian said. Everyone at the scene was terrified. The environment in Antarctica was so tough that it was not surprising that even there are thousands of abysses below. Fortunately the snow was not thick, and that member didn’t get injured. When talking about this event, Jiao Yutian still had a lot of fear.

"The Australian thought that we were a professional rescue team. When they learned that we were just a scientific research vessel, they gave us great praise.""Xue Long" was the first international vessel arriving at the rescue site. After 5 hours’ tense and well-organized helicopter rescue, 52 passengers were successfully transported from the Russian "Akademik Shokalskiy" to the Australian "Australis", they perfectly completed the rescue mission.

Story 2 Trapped among icebergs for 21 days

After successfully rescuing the Russian "Akademik Shokalskiy", affected by the violent astronomical tide, "Xue Long" was blocked by thick floating ice and sudden icebergs during the outward breakthrough. Jiao Yutian said that if they blindly breakthrough, they would be plunged into a more dangerous situation, so they decided to temporarily stay still. "The biggest threat to us was the icebergs. There were seven or eight icebergs around us." Jiao Yutian said. At that time, there were icebergs in the front of our vessel and we were afraid to move forward. However there were also icebergs behind the vessel and we did not dare to go back. Once the propeller was damaged, it would be all over. But we couldn’t just stay still because there were too much icebergs floating on the ocean nearby, which contained a possibility of being hit at any time. "Jiao Yutian said. He immediately organized expedition team to set up a monitoring team and an environmental data analysis team to closely monitor the situation of surrounding ice and icebergs, and collect data and forecasts of nearby weather, hydrology, ocean currents and sea ice from multiple sources and channels. They actively discussed and researched with domestic security units, taking various precautions and seizing all favorable opportunities to break through.

"The mood of the team members were relatively stable during the period of being trapped. Although we knew that we were facing an unprecedented danger, everyone was still working as normal. It was during New Year's Day so recreational activities were organized on the vessel to relieve team members' tension. The positive attitude of the crew was also an important reason for the successful breakout.” Jiao Yutian said. On the early morning of January 7, 2014, after observing that the floating ices around the "Xue Long" were moving eastward, the expedition team decided to seize the opportunity to officially break through. However, due to the accumulation of thick snow and ice, the vessel moved slowly. In the end, after 13 hours’ hard work and adjusting the route of breakout for many times,  "Xue Long" which was trapped for 21 days finally broke through the heavy ice area and entered into the clean water area.

Due to the rescue of the Russian scientific research vessel, "Xue Long" was trapped. But Jiao Yutian said that no one had any complaints because the Russian "Shokalskiy" was trapped in Antarctica and its grade is Distress, which is the highest grade for international help and adjacent ships all needed to come to rescue.

Story 3 Search for MH370 without a break

On March 21 "Xue Long" had just completed its scientific research mission and originally planned to reach the port of Ushuaia for a five-day break. But it received the task of searching for Malaysia Airlines' missing passenger plane MH370 before reaching the port. Jiao Yutian said that the team members have been working for more than 100 days without a break and they were particularly looking forward to having a rest, however task is order. "We changed the docking time to 6 hours. We prepared supplements and then began to search."Jiao Yutian said that at the time there were more than 160 people on the vessel. After consultation, half of them went to search and rescue. While the other half, including all the female members went home.

"At first we were going home soon because we have completed the scientific research successfully. The atmosphere on the vessel was particularly good. When hearing that so many compatriots were missing, everyone actively requested to stay here and participated in the rescue." Jiao Yutian said. Because the westerlies of South Pacific were extremely unstable, for safety only 8 male members left on the vessel. Before leaving, team members made a lot of "hooks" and 2 meters x 4 meters net for rescue. They also purchased more than 20 telescopes from Australia, hoping that they would be come in handy.

Jiao Yutian said that during the 214-hour search conducted by "Xue Long", they drove 2,660 nautical miles and searched for 11,710 square nautical miles. They have found white spherical floats and red rope floats, which were ultimately confirmed to have nothing to do with the missing aircraft.

In the afternoon of March 30, eight searching vessels including "Xue Long", "Coast Guard 01", "Dong Hai Jiu 101", "Nan Hai Jiu 115" and Chinese Navy vessel 886, 171, 998, and 999 reached the new area to start a new search. On the morning of March 31, the "Xue Long" and the "Coast Guard 01" successfully completed the handover and returned home.

【New Record】

The First Antarctic Voyage

The 30th Antarctic Scientific Expedition carried out the first Antarctic Expedition voyage of "Xue Long". In this voyage, "Xue Long" sailed safely for more than 30,000 nautical miles with over 2,200 nautical miles on ice. It totally sailed for over 2400 hours with 142 hours for ice breaking for 13.3 nautical miles. The Antarctic voyage sailed about 11,500 nautical miles, which successfully completed the first Antarctic Voyage of Chinese polar expedition.

During the voyage around the Antarctica, the ocean survey also made great achievements. About 80G of acoustic data of scientific and expedition surveys in the Antarctic waters were obtained so that the distribution of Antarctic biological resources could be understood. The high-speed collector operated 121 stations and obtained 121 zooplankton samples. At the same time it also obtained the data of water depth and temperature of 121 stations, conducted surface seawater analysis on 121 stations and obtained 438 chlorophyll samples on the surface. The marine chemical professional team seized all favorable opportunities with the crew to obtain a large amount of precious seawater chemistry and atmospheric chemistry sample data, which has important milestone significance for further advancing the development of Chinese Antarctic scientific expedition and promoting China's position in the international Antarctic scientific research.

Set up the 4th Antarctic Scientific Research Station

Jiao Yutian said that another important task of the Antarctic scientific expedition was to set up the fourth Antarctic Scientific Research Station of China-Taishan Station. Jiao Yutian said that within 45 days, all members of Taishan Station carried forward the spirit of continuously enduring hardship and fighting to win. On February 7, 2014, the main construction was completed. The State Oceanic Administration used remote video connection to hold the opening ceremony of Chinese Taishan Station in Antarctica on February 8 in Beijing.

"With the increasingly frequent human activities in Antarctica, many countries are stepping up to participate in it. China has the world's most advanced icebreakers and has established the 'Kunlun Station' at the highest altitude in Antarctica. With 30 scientific research missions in Antarctica, China is gradually transforming from a "polar nation" to a "polar powerful nation", which is playing an increasingly important role under the premise of protecting the Antarctic environment." Jiao Yutian said.

[Character introduction]

The 54-year-old Jiao Yutian has been engaged in polar expeditions for more than 20 years. He has visited the Antarctica for 10 times and served as the captain of the ocean expedition for many times. He has participated in five Arctic scientific expeditions and with 4 times of overseas cooperation on the Arctic expeditions. Over the past few years, he has completed a number of national polar expeditions, filling the gaps in many expeditions and owned a number of invention patents.