![The Aurora Australis ship sits among new ice, moored in Horseshoe Harbour, at Mawson Station, Antarctica in this undated file photo supplied by the Australian Antarctic Division The Aurora Australis ship sits among new ice, moored in Horseshoe Harbour, at Mawson Station, Antarctica in this undated file photo supplied by the Australian Antarctic Division](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/rtx28cp0.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
By Nash Jenkins
Australia sent a mission to rescue 37 people who were stranded aboard an Australian icebreaking ship that ran aground after a severe blizzard Wednesday.
Australian officials said on Friday that they were launching a rescue mission to retrieve the members of the icebreaker’s expedition and bring them to Mawson Station — an Australian research facility on Antarctica — reports the BBC. Thirty-one crew members will stay onboard the 4,311-ton vessel, the Aurora Australis, and work to refloat it.
All 68 passengers and crew are safe, authorities said, and the vessel itself incurred only a small breach in its hull. The ship ran aground Wednesday morning when a massive blizzard untethered it from its mooring lines.
[BBC]
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