Chief mate : Passengers are very happy now to be on the Australian icebreaker . He thanks Russian icebreaker crew whose helicopter ferried 22 to safety . The helicopter rescue followed a failed attempt by the Chinese icebreaker , the Xue Long , which made it 6 nautical miles from the trapped vessel before being stopped by especially thick ice . ` ` It 's 100 % we 're off ! A huge thanks to all , '' a professor on the ship tweets . 52 Russian crew members are still on board the trapped ship , the MV Astrolabe .
Chief mate : Passengers are very happy now to be on the Australian icebreaker . He thanks Russian icebreaker crew whose helicopter ferried 22 to safety . `` It 's 100 % we 're off ! A huge thanks to all , '' a professor on the ship tweets . 52 Russian crew members are still on board the trapped ship , the MV Astrolabe .