Rescuers reach crew stranded in Antarctica

Rescuers in two helicopters on Friday reached three Australian air crew who have been stranded for a week with their damaged plane in Antarctica, authorities said Friday.

Two male pilots and a female crew member have been stuck in temperatures as low as -25 degrees Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit) above an ice shelf more than 600 kilometers (400 nautical miles) southwest of Australia's Davis Station since Jan. 5, the government's Australian Antarctic Division said in a statement.

The crew were retrieving a U.S. weather balloon near the Amery Ice Shelf when they damaged the landing skis of their twin-propellor CASA 212-400 aircraft.

The Squirrel helicopters carrying two engineers, repair equipment and additional supplies arrived at the site Friday after the low clouds that had made flying treacherous cleared, the statement said.

"The three people on board the aircraft ... are fine with all the necessary equipment and supplies for the conditions," the statement said.

"The engineers will assess damage to the ... aircraft," it added.

The rescue team from Davis had set up camp about 290 kilometers (180 miles) from the disabled plane at Beaver Lake where they had waited for weather conditions to improve.

The three plan to fly their repaired plane out.

The division's manager Charlton Clark could not say how long a proper assessment of the damage would take.