site.btaCrew of Bulgarian Naval Research Vessel Presented with Distinction by Parliament of Argentina's Chubut Province

The crew of the Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii was presented with a distinction by the Parliament of Argentina's Chubut Province, the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna (on the Black Sea) reported on Friday. The distinction was conferred for finding the wreckage of a Neptune 2-P-103 of the Argentine Naval Research Squadron, which crashed into Bernard Mountain on Livingston Island in 1976.

The distinction was handed to Bulgarian Ambassador to Argentina Stoyan Mihaylov by MPs Fabian Gandon and Maria Andrea Aguilera on behalf of Chubut's legislature. The official address to the crew says that Chubut Parliament head Gustavo Menna and the MPs distinguish the scientific work of the RSV 421 crew who managed to collect the aircraft's fragments 48 years after the crash.

In mid-September 1976, the plane crashed into Mt Bernard, killing all 11 persons on board. In January 1977, during a search for the crew's bodies, a BELL 212 helicopter crashed, too, and all three crew members died. During the 32nd Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition in early 2024, a Bulgarian expedition comprised of Kalin Naydenov, Kiril Doskov, Doychin Boyanov and Marcho Paunov found fragments of the Neptune while collecting geological samples. On the way back from Livingston Island in Antarctica, the Bulgarian naval research vessel docked at the naval base in Mar del Plata, Argentina to return the fragments.

***

During the 32nd Bulgarian expedition to Antarctica, which started on November 8, 2023, the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) is publishing interviews with Antarctic researchers. 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. 

Again, 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 at the Bulgarian Antarctic base on Livingston Island.