Bremerhaven (dpa) - After the late change of personnel on "Polarstern" four weeks ago, the supply ship "Kapitan Dranitsyn" arrived with the old crew in Tromsø, Norway.
The researchers are due to fly to Bremen on Wednesday, as a spokesman for the Bremerhaven Alfred Wegener Institute said. Because of the Corona crisis, charter flights are planned.
The team has already been replaced twice on the "Polarstern", which has been drifting through the central Arctic for a year since September 2019. The last change of personnel was delayed by around two weeks because the "Kapitan Dranitsyn" could only penetrate very slowly through the thick winter ice. On the way back she had to be refueled by another icebreaker at sea to be able to go back to Norway.
Arrived in Bremen, the international crew will be handled separately at the airport due to the corona virus. Members who do not come from Germany should initially be accommodated in a hotel and examined by employees of the Bremen Health Department, the Senate said. Only then should they continue to travel to their home countries.
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