MOSCOW, January 5 (RIA Novosti) - A transport plane working with an international expedition has crashed in the Antarctic, although all four people on board survived, a Russian polar explorer said on Monday.

Artur Chilingarov, the Russian president's special representative for international cooperation in the Arctic and Antarctic, said that the plane could not be repaired and that the plans for the international expedition could change.

"Pilots transporting spare parts for the cross-country vehicles of a British expedition lost their bearings and crashed into the ice," Chilingarov said. "The crew of three and a Russian polar explorer are alive. They have been evacuated on a second plane."

He said the loss of the Basler BT-67 plane at the height of the Antarctic summer was a "heavy loss."

"The plans for the Antarctic expedition will be adjusted," he added, assuring that it would continue.