Passengers on grounded Arctic ship to fly out

KUGAARUK, Nunavut (CP) — Dozens of passengers from an Arctic cruise ship that ran aground last week were expected to be flown back south Saturday night, weather and sea ice permitting.

“We’re considering it,” said Catherine Lawton of One Ocean Expeditions tour company.

“Right now, everything’s dependent on weather and ice. What we’re trying to do is watch the variables and put possible options in place.”

The Akademic Ioffe, operated by One Ocean, ran aground Friday morning in Pelly Bay about 70 kilometres north of Kugaruuk, on the Simpson Peninsula on Canada’s eastern Arctic coast.

The ship, a 117-metre ice-strengthened vessel that has made many Arctic cruises, has since been refloated.

The Ioffe’s 102 passengers and 24 staff have been transferred to the Ioffe’s sister ship, the Akademik Sergey Vavilov.

“They picked up all the passengers this morning in search and rescue operations with the Canadian Coast Guard,” Cpl. Serge Yelle of the Kugaruuk RCMP detachment said Saturday.

Lawton said there’s plenty of room aboard the Vavilov, which has 83 passengers of its own. Onboard programming was continuing Saturday. If conditions on the ocean remain stable, between 80 and 90 passengers were expected to be flown to Yellowknife Saturday night in a chartered plane.