Snowmobilers stranded on unstable ice off Iqaluit plucked off by helicopter

[five_alarm]

IQALUIT, NU - In a dramatic rescue in the freezing Arctic darkness, four snowmobilers who had been stranded for eight hours were plucked off unstable ice in the freezing waters of Frobisher Bay early Thursday. Russell Chislett, his 10-year-old son Marcus and two friends were about 80 kilometres from Iqaluit on the sea ice attempting to rescue a stuck snowmobile Wednesday when the ice they were standing on broke free and began to drift out to sea. "A crack had formed in the ice behind us and we didn't notice it," said Chislett from his home in Iqaluit. "By the time we noticed it, it was too far to drive the snowmobiles across it. It was about 300 to 400 yards off." The four unpacked a small boat they had brought with them and used it to paddle across the gap with some survival supplies. They set up a small shelter with a tarp and the boat turned up on its side. With both the tide and the wind heading out to open water, Chislett said he was afraid the ice was too unstable for the group to move. "We weren't really sure if we were on stable ice or not, because it was breaking into sheets two or three miles wide. If that one piece left, more than likely a couple more pieces were going to leave, too." The group decided to call for help using the satellite phone they had with them and hunkered down in -35 C cold to wait, huddled around a camp stove. Iqaluit emergency measures called the search-rescue centre in Halifax. A Hercules airplane was sent out from Greenwood, N.S., and a local helicopter company was chartered to look for the missing group. Four ground searchers on snowmobiles headed out from Iqaluit.

Source: macleans.ca (http://www.firehall.com/refer.php?url=http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=n011371A&linkid=1327&parent=news(headlines)&)