site.btaBulgarian Research Ship Finds Plane Parts in Livingston Island Area

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) has found aircraft parts during the collection of geological samples in the area of Livingston Island's False Bay and Barnard Point, the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna (on the Black Sea) reported on Tuesday. The metal and composite fragments found on the shore have been taken aboard the ship together with the geological samples by 32nd Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition participants Doychin Boyanov, Kalin Naydenov, Kiril Doskov, and Marcho Paunov.

The wreckage is believed to belong to a military aircraft. A historical check into aircraft incidents shows that the Chilean Air Force lost a C-130 Hercules transport airplane in the area of the Drake Passage in 2019.

RSV 421 has contacted a representative of the Antarctic air command of the Chilean Air Force, who has requested the wreckage to be taken to Chile's Antarctic base on King George Island, if possible.

RSV 421 plans to hand over the plane parts along with the exact coordinates where they were found, when in the Maxwell Bay area (between January 31 and February 1).

RSV 421, which departed from Varna on November 8, 2023, dropped anchor at Livingston Island on January 4.

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During the 32nd Bulgarian expedition to Antarctica, which started on November 8, 2023, the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) is publishing video interviews with Antarctic researchers. Video journalist Emil Granicharov, Senior Editor at BTA, will document the work of the researchers in video diaries. BTA presents all scientific projects with videos, photos and texts prepared before the scientists' departure.

The Bulgaria-Antarctica BTA's Log again provides coverage of the voyage of the Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii to Antarctica and back and its stay there, as it did during the 31st expedition between December 27, 2022 and May 2, 2023. Back then, only BTA had a correspondent, Daily News Editor Konstantin Karagyozov, who covered the 127-day expedition with text, video and photos during the entire voyage (including across the Atlantic in both directions) and throughout the stay in Antarctica. In June 2023, BTA published in Bulgarian and in English an issue of its LIK magazine "To Antarctica and Back under the Bulgarian Flag" dedicated to the historic expedition. 

All of BTA's information on the Bulgarian scientific research in Antarctica and the support provided by the Bulgarian naval research vessel, as well as on the other activities at the Bulgarian Antarctic Base, will be available to all media outlets in Bulgarian and in English on BTA's website in the Bulgaria - Antarctica: BTA's Log section.

BTA has a National Press Club on board the ship and is planning to open a National Press Club at the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on Livingston Island.