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Glaciologist Ted Scambos from the University of Colorado alerted colleagues Professor David Vaughan and Andrew Fleming of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) that the ice shelf looked at risk. After checking daily satellite pictures, BAS sent a Twin Otter aircraft on a reconnaissance mission to check out the extent of the breakout.

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This is what they saw

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"I've never seen anything like this before – it was awesome. We flew along the main crack and observed the sheer scale of movement from the breakage. Big hefty chunks of ice, the size of small houses, look as though they've been thrown around like rubble – it's like an explosion."

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Hi Res- Wilikins Breaking Up
Hi Res- Wilkins from Twin Otter

The scene was also photographed by Taiwan’s Formosat-2 satellite.

Hi Res - Wilkins from Formosat 2

And for a bonus, while I was looking for these, pics I noticed that the NASA Earth Observatory is way ahead of us. Check out the attached KMZ file from NASA. KMZ file of the ice shelf disintegrating suitable for use with Google Earth showing the collapse using 4 dated A 250-meter-resolution overlays.