Rescue mission recovers body of one missing Dutch traveller

A rescue mission recovered the body of one Dutch researcher this week, who is believed to have drowned in this area northwest of Resolute Bay. (IMAGE COURTESY OF COLD FACTS)

An RCMP-led mission has recovered one of the bodies of two Dutch travellers who perished while conducting research in the High Arctic.

Marc Cornelissen and Philip de Roo had been skiing over poor ice conditions last week about 200 kilometres northwest of Resolute Bay when the pair sent out a distress signal. They were later presumed drowned.

On May 6, the RCMP led a team of local volunteers to the site by snowmobile, where the group was able to recover the body of one of the two missing men, the RCMP said May 8. Police have not said which of the two men were found.

“Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, they could not locate the second missing man,” the RCMP said in a release.

“The ice conditions at the location of the incident could best be described as very poor.”

But the findings at the scene were consistent with both men perishing as a result of the accident, RCMP said.

The search and rescue team is expected to return to Resolute Bay May 8 where the remains will be turned over to the Office of the Chief Coroner for investigation.

Police did not say if or when another recovery mission would be launched to locate the second man. The RCMP has said that other attempts to reach the site where the men likely drowned have been abandoned due to poor conditions.

An earlier mission succeeded in reaching the site by helicopter May 2 during which members of the rescue team were able to save a dog that had been travelling with the researchers.

Cornelissen and de Roo left Resolute Bay on skis April 6 as part of a two-month research trip focused on what’s called the Last Ice Area, a High Arctic region where ice is predicted to persist the longest in the face of climate change.

In its May 8 release, the RCMP thanked the community of Resolute Bay, the Polar Continental Shelf Program and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands for their support with the recovery missions.