MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Almirante Irizar” waiting to be towed to Puerto Belgrano

Strong gales and huge waves impede the start of the towing operation

Argentine icebreaker “Almirante Irizar” which caught fire last Tuesday in the South Atlantic remained on Monday anchored 140 miles off Puerto Madryn waiting for an improvement in weather conditions so she can be towed to Puerto Belgrano.

According to the Argentine Navy the captain of the vessel, 30 crewmembers and a team of tactical divers from the Salvage Department remain on board preparing for the recovery operation and to ensure the fire that engulfed the icebreaker has been definitively dominated. "The situation is similar to Sunday's: strong gales and huge waves impede the start of the towing operation. Meantime the crew on board is preparing the vessel for its trip to the continent", said Argentine Navy sources. "Almirante Irizar is under control and nautically secure", said the Navy spokesperson, "a problem with the rudder has been fixed so there should be no resistance when sailing". Meantime Federal Judge Hugo Sastre who is head of the inquiry into the fire that forced all on board to abandon ship said it was too premature to attribute the accident to "human failure or mistake". "So far I've interrogated the personnel on duty the night of the incident and who were responsible for the engine and generators room where apparently the fire begun", said Judge Sastre. "It's too premature and it would be irresponsible from my part to attribute the incident to human failure or errors", he said adding that once the "Almirante Irizar" reached Puerto Belgrano or Puerto Madryn the technical inquiries will begin. Five Navy and Coast Guard vessels are in the vicinity waiting to begin rescue operations. They include destroyer ARA Almirante Brown; corvettes ARA Robinson and ARA Granville plus support vessels ARA Lieutenant Oliveri and ARA Lieutenant Olivieri, loaded with tools, generators, chains and other equipment for the operation. Fire in the icebreaker which apparently started in the generators' room took almost five days to dominate. Last Saturday when the fire was extinguished and all was under control the idea was to begin the towing operation but weather conditions changed rapidly frustrating the effort. The Argentine Navy estimates it will take from three days to a week to have the vessel taken to Puerto Belgrano for repairs and refurbishing, "which could involve up to two years". Almirante Irizar is the logistics backbone of Argentina's Antarctic operations and was on her return from the 2006/07 campaign when the incident occurred. All on board, crew members and scientific staff, 241 people, were evacuated in order and timely.