The second and final group of 77 people rescued from the Explorer, a cruiser that sank Friday after hitting an iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean, landed in the Chilean city of Punta Arenas aboard a military aircraft Sunday, local media said.
The Chilean Air Force Hercules touched down just after 1:10 p.m. local time (1610 GMT) carrying among its passengers the 54 crew of the boat, which now lies 1,100 meters deep in the Bransfield Strait, 76km east of King George Island, which is also known as May 25 Island.
The island, the largest of the Southern Shetland Islands, hosted the 77 rescued passengers from late Friday onwards after they were plucked from life rafts by the Nord Norge, a Norwegian cruise ship.
The Explorer hit an iceberg just before dawn Friday and sank 15 hours later. Everyone was rescued the same day.
A separate group of 77 had been evacuated Saturday from the President Frei Antarctic Base by the same Hercules aircraft; an evacuation flight that lasted six hours. The Air Force said all evacuees were in good health and good spirits.
The ship's owner, Canadian tour company GAP Adventures, had ordered the crew not to speak to the media, but a company source said that all passengers would receive compensation.
A group of 40 of Saturday's evacuees were to travel to Chile's capital Santiago Sunday, in order to book group flights home, the British Consul in Punta Arenas told local radio.
At the time of the accident, the Explorer was carrying crew members from the Philippines, Sweden, Argentina and Colombia, and 100 tourists from countries including Britain, Australia, Canada, the United States, Denmark and Japan.
Chile's navy said that high seas and strong winds had already dispersed the 80-meter-by-20-meter fuel slick that had leaked from the ship. The navy said that the boat's quick dissolving diesel was unlikely to cause environmental problems and that the crew of the Viel icebreaker was keeping an eye on the situation
The Explorer's captain, Bengt Wiman, walked past shouting journalists and gave a thumbs-up sign to crowds who welcomed the plane.
The Explorer had been on a 19-day tour of Antarctica and the Malvinas (Falkland Islands), bringing passengers to observe penguins, whales and other wildlife.
Source: Xinhua
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