A Russian helicopter pilot rescued by Canadians after more than 30 hours atop an Arctic Ocean ice floe is sharing new details about his rescue.
Sergey Ananov, a sociologist and journalist, was attempting to circumnavigate the Arctic Circle in a two-seater Robinson R22 helicopter when a gear belt broke about halfway through his flight from Iqaluit to Greenland on Saturday.
The pilot lost altitude for about three minutes before ditching in the Davis Strait, where he used a life raft to get to an ice floe about 50 metres away.
Once there, he fended off three polar bears by roaring and chasing them.
Ananov was finally rescued late Sunday night.
Ananov told reporters in Ottawa Friday, that his rescue was a “miracle” for a number of reasons.
He said he was down to his last of three flares when he saw the lights of a ship, which turned out to be the Canadian Coast Guard’s Pierre Radisson.
“The third officer, a very nice girl, noticed (the) last seconds of this flare,” he said, “(from) quite far away -- several miles.”
The “dense fog” that had worried him since the crash cleared just hours before the rescuers approached, making it easier to see the flare.
Also making it easier to see the burning flare was the fact that the ship got close at around 11 p.m., when it was finally starting to get dark near the Arctic Circle, he said.
Ananov added that the ship came just in time, because he didn’t have the strength “to fend off bears for a third day.”
“I didn’t want to be eaten.”
Ananov explained that while he was stranded, he had been visualizing a helicopter rescuing him and that what he had pictured was “exactly what happened.”
When it arrived, the chopper came within two feet of the ice floe and he stepped up.
After about 15 minutes on board, Ananov said he called his wife and children, who had already heard the good news.
“(My wife) was shouting at me with a happy voice,” he said, “and of course there was a big relief for all my relatives.”
With a report from CTV’s Katie Simpson
