MOSCOW (AP) - Twelve Russian researchers were plucked from an Arctic ice floe Saturday, three days after a chunk of the floe disappeared beneath the sea and took most of their meteorological station with it.
Two Russian helicopters left the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, some 450 miles southeast of the floe, early Saturday and returned with the researchers, their remaining equipment and two dogs about 10 hours later.
A large piece of the floe broke off Wednesday and four of the North Pole-32 research station's six buildings were lost.
The researchers, who had been recording weather conditions and studying climate change, were unhurt and had enough supplies to survive for several day.
Deputy parliament speaker Artur Chilingarov, a renowned polar explorer who took part in the rescue, said he expected the men would make a festive return for International Women's Day on Monday, a major holiday in Russia.
``We hope that the polar researchers and their families will be able to celebrate the holiday in a homey environment,'' he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
The rescue effort involved two helicopters - an Mi-8 that found the researchers, landed on the ice floe and transmitted its coordinates; and a heavy-load Mi-26 that loaded up the researchers and their equipment.
The research station was set up on the floe in April 2003. The floe had drifted some 1,710 miles south before it broke up.
So remember children, Mil helicopters good, freezing to death in Arctic waters bad
Ozzy
