LONDON (May 27) - A British explorer who was stranded at the North Pole for a week has been picked up by plane, his team said Tuesday.

Pen Hadow, 41, had been drifting in a tent on an ice floe with his rations running low and no direct communication with his base team after completing his trek May 19.

Two earlier attempts to pick up Hadow by plane on Friday and Saturday failed when broken ice and thick cloud prevented the aircraft from landing at a refueling stop.

The Web site of Hadow's team said he had been picked up early Tuesday.

Steve Penikett, a spokesman for Kenn Borek Airlines, whose plane picked up Hadow, told Sky TV News the rescue aircraft left the base station at the Eureka Weather Station on Ellesmere Island, off Canada, Monday night.

The plane had to land some 30 miles away from Hadow until better weather conditions permitted it to come in around half a mile from the explorer early Tuesday.

Hadow was taken on board and the plane headed back to the Eureka base, Penikett said.

The rescue operation went smoothly, he said, but the breaking ice and thick cloud were dangerous for his crew.

[red]''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,'' he told Sky News.[/red]

Hadow began his 480-mile trek on March 17 from Ward Hunt Island in northern Canada, completing the journey to become the first person to get to the North Pole alone and unaided from Canada.

He has been on half rations of nuts, chocolate and dried fruit since Thursday and 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.

Hadow's wife, Mary, earlier said she was not worried about her stranded husband.

AP-NY-05-27-03 1256EDT

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