Borek does it again!

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London — A plane owned by a Canadian company made a dangerous ice-landing near the North Pole on Tuesday to rescue a stranded British explorer who had spent a week camped on a drifting ice floe with his rations running low.

Pen Hadow, 41, was picked up after the plane owned by Calgary-based Kenn Borek Air Ltd. landed on a makeshift runway he had marked out on the floating ice using plastic bags.

Mr. Hadow began his 770-kilometre trek on March 17 from Ward Hunt Island off Nunavut, and on May 19 became the first person to get to the North Pole alone and unaided from Canada.

Two earlier attempts to reach him had failed because of breaking ice and thick cloud.

Steve Penikett, a spokesman for Kenn Borek Air, said the ice was moving rapidly and continually breaking up, making the rescue mission difficult for everyone involved.

"I wish it hadn't taken place at this time of year. This is the latest we have ever done a pickup," he told Sky News.

"It's not the issue of him running out of food. It's the issue of going to the pole at this time of year that is a bit stupid and you are risking a lot of people's lives by doing it."

But Mr. Penikett had praise for Mr. Hadow's achievement.

"He has had quite a trek and I'm sure he's very tired and hungry. But he's done well," Mr. Penikett said.

"Many people have tried this with varying degree of success. Anyone who gets there has achieved a good thing."

Mr. Hadow was heading back to the team base camp at Eureka Weather Station on Ellesmere Island, north of Nunavut. He is expected to return later to Britain.

A statement on the exploration team's official Web site said, "Pen is fine apart from obviously being tired and hungry and in need of a shower."

He has been on half-rations of nuts, chocolate and dried fruit since Thursday, living in the tent in temperatures of about —6 C.

The battery on his satellite telephone died on Friday, leaving the explorer with only a signal beacon — which he changed to indicate weather conditions — as a means of contact.

His team said he called for a resupply of his food rations, also by changing the beacon, on Monday. Pilots decided they would take out the supplies but attempt to pick him up if they could.

The rescue plane had to land about 50 kilometres away from Mr. Hadow until better weather conditions permitted it to come in to just under a kilometre from the explorer.

Kenn Borek Air, which has facilities in Edmonton, Vancouver, Dawson Creek, B.C., and in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, specializes in flying people and equipment into cold-weather environments throughout the North as well as the Antarctic.

The company gained international attention in April 2001 when two of its Calgary-based pilots flew to the South Pole in a daring mission to rescue Dr. Ronald Shemenski, who had a potentially life-threatening pancreatic illness and needed hospital treatment.