The fishermen rescued from the drifting ice floe on Lake Baikal will be held accountable for driving onto the ice outside the crossing

On Lake Baikal, a rescue operation ended safely. Nine fishermen from the Olkhon district ended up on a drifting ice floe after driving onto the ice outside an official crossing. For more than a day, rescuers on a Khivus and an Mi 8 helicopter reached them, brought fuel, tea and food, then took them to Khuzhir. Now the winter fishing enthusiasts face administrative liability, and their vehicles remained on the ice.

The rescue story of the residents of the Olkhon District, who ignored safety rules and set out nine people in three vehicles for fishing, forty kilometers from the village of Khuzhir to Cape Khoboy, from a drifting ice floe ended safely.
According to the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Irkutsk Region: “Traveling onto the ice of Lake Baikal outside official ice crossings is potentially dangerous, but for the sake of omul, as their main source of income, the fishermen decided to take the risk.”
At this time of year, the Baikal ice field poses a major danger, with numerous pressure ridges and cracks. The rescue operation lasted more than a day. In total, more than thirty people were involved in it.
The fact that a huge slab of ice carrying the people caught in the emergency had broken away was not noticed right away. By the time one of the fishermen managed to call the rescuers, the gap had already exceeded one kilometer, and the possibility of returning the same way was lost.
Rescuers from the Baikal Search and Rescue Team of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations were well prepared to respond to such incidents. An air-cushion vessel, the “Khivus,” was sent to the fishermen drifting on the ice floe. The vessel feels equally at home on land and on water. Ice hummocks, cracks, open water, deep snow, varied terrain, steep slopes - all of this is no problem for the “Khivus”; moreover, it allows one to reach the destination in the shortest possible time. Rescuers reached the fishermen in it, but on the way back, a storm broke out on Lake Baikal, and it was decided to wait out the bad weather in the “Khivus” on the ice floe. During the day, a “Mi-8” helicopter was sent to the scene, delivering fuel for the amphibious vessel, hot tea, and dry rations for the victims. Only thanks to the pilots’ professionalism was it possible to keep the aircraft in the air 5 centimeters above the icy surface, which made it possible to reduce the load on the ice, which had an uneven structure and was covered with numerous cracks.
“The rescue operation has been completed, and the people were transported by helicopter to the village of Khuzhir. The fishermen are feeling satisfactory. The sleepless night, of course, affected how they feel, but that is the maximum that is preventing them from feeling cheerful right now. The cars were left on the ice. Their further fate will be decided.” – According to Evgeny Dorogaykin, an International Class rescuer of the Baikal Search and Rescue Team of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Since local residents could not have failed to know that traveling onto the ice of Lake Baikal outside official ice crossings is potentially dangerous, the fans of winter fishing will be brought to administrative responsibility.
In the village of Khuzhir, the drifting fishermen were met by relatives, representatives of the local administration, as well as law enforcement officers.
Based on materials from the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Irkutsk Region.