Russian Mini-Sub Stuck on Sea Floor

[Keith Heitmann]

Updated: 11:59 AM EDT
Russian Mini-Sub Stuck on Sea Floor
U.S. Navy to Help With Effort to Rescue Seven Crew Members
By YEVGENY KULKOV, AP

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Aug. 5) -- A Russian mini-submarine carrying seven sailors snagged on a fishing net and was stuck 625 feet down on the Pacific floor Friday, and the United States and Britain were rushing unmanned vehicles there to help in rescue efforts.

Image: cdn.news.aol.com/aolnews_photos/03/00/20050805105609990023

It was unclear whether there was enough oxygen aboard the mini-sub to keep the crew alive long enough for remote-controlled vehicles to reach them from bases in San Diego and Britain.

Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Viktor Fyodorov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the air supply would last until sometime Monday. However, he earlier told Russia's Channel One television that air would last ''a little more than 24 hours.''

The Russian sub's propeller became entangled in a fishing net Thursday, Russian navy Capt. Igor Dygalo said on state-run Rossiya television. The accident occurred in Beryozovaya Bay, about 50 miles south of Kamchatka's capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, officials said.

''There is air remaining on the underwater apparatus for a day - one day,'' Dygalo said at about 6 a.m. EDT. ''The operation continues. We have a day, and intensive, active measures will be taken to rescue the AS-28 vessel and the people aboard.''

Fleet spokesman Capt. Alexander Kosolapov said contact had been made with the sailors, who were not hurt.

Dygalo told NTV television that Russian authorities were working out a rescue plan that could be put in motion later in the day, but he did not describe it.

The mini-sub, called an AS-28, was too deep to allow the sailors to swim to the surface on their own or for divers to reach it, officials said.

The crisis evoked comparisons with the 2000 disaster involving the nuclear submarine Kursk. The Kursk sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea after explosions on board, killing all 118 seamen aboard.

However, some Kursk sailors survived for hours as oxygen ran out, and Russian authorities were criticized severely for waiting several days before asking for international assistance.

This time, Russia waited just a day before seeking help.

Both accidents raise questions about the state of Russia's cash-strapped military. The same type of vessel that is now stuck, called a Priz, was used in the rescue efforts that followed the Kursk disaster, Interfax reported.

The latest accident occurred early Thursday after the mini-submarine was launched from a rescue ship during a combat training exercise, Kosolapov said. The AS-28, built in 1989, is about 44 feet long and 19 feet high and can dive to depths of 1,640 feet.

Two surface ships were sweeping the area with nets in the hope of wresting the trapped vessel from the sea floor, adding that the rescue effort would continue into the night, Dygalo said.

Russia appealed to the United States and Japan for assistance, the Interfax news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Boris Malakhov as saying.

At least one robotic rescue vehicle from San Diego will be shipped on a plane Friday to Russia to help save the submarine. The unmanned vehicle, called a Super Scorpio, can reach depths of up to 5,000 feet and is equipped with high-powered lights, sonar and video cameras, said Capt. Matt Brown, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet in Honolulu.

The Deep Submergence Unit team is scheduled to leave San Diego's North Island Naval Air Station on an Air Force C-5 transport plane at 1:45 p.m. EDT, the Pentagon said.

The Super Scorpio then will be transported by truck and loaded on a Russian ship before making its descent to the stricken vessel.

Brown said the Russian military has indicated that the AS-28 may have been fouled by fishing nets or steel cables. The vehicle does have an instrument that can cut steel cables, he said.

The Super Scorpio, which weighs about 4,500 pounds, has been used to conduct underwater surveys and inspections.

About 30 people will accompany the vehicle to Russia, Brown said.

''We are working as fast as we can to make this happen,'' he said.

The British vehicle was being loaded onto a Royal Air Force transport plane at Scotland's Prestwick airport and was expected to arrive at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the city nearest the site, at about 5 a.m. Saturday, said Anton Atrashkin, spokesman for the British Embassy in Moscow.

That means the British vessel likely will arrive before the U.S. vessel.

Since Soviet times, the Kamchatka Peninsula has housed several major submarine bases and numerous other military facilities, and large areas of it have remained closed to outsiders.

Airlifting a U.S. underwater vehicle to the area will mark the first time since the World War II era that a U.S. military plane has been allowed to fly there.

At Moscow's request, Japan dispatched a vessel carrying submarine rescue gear and three other ships to join salvage efforts, but they were not expected to arrive at the scene until early next week, Marine Self Defense Force spokesman Hidetsubu Iwamasa said.

Associated Press reporters Robert Burns in Washington and Greg Risling in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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[Phil Walker]

I heard this yesterday as well. Although what I heard is also contrary to what is being said. I heard we are sending 2 vehicles for one. Supposedly they have about 12 hour of oxygen left at this time (just after 8am PST), so I do hope the joint effort will help.

I did also hear the sub was being towed to shallower water in hopes the crew will be able to swim out. God be with them and good luck is all I can say.

As to what is being said about Russia's military being "strapped", who knows?! I do know it's a fact that all sub activity is always covert even to many within Russia, but this time they had to seek help and it is good that we are helping and I hope they remember this as well.


Sincerely,
Phil

[Keith Heitmann]

Since yesterday, the Russians say that they may have more than 12 hours of oxygen left. At least in one report, that is what was said. The Russians have since tried to tow the mini-sub into shallower waters but may have made matters worse. After dragging the sub about 100 meters it seems to have gotten snagged on a huge underwater antenna used for spying on Nato ships. (I'm thinking that's what the sub was doing down there in the first place, probably a service call on the attenna. Why else would a "rescue sub" be out on its own prowling around in the area? Seems a little too coincidental to me.) So now the sub is snagged but good. Typical Russians, always making things worse.

[Phil Walker]

Now Keith ;D!!!

Let's say typical of the government and military. Other than that I can't say as I agree as not all Russians screw things up. There is one in particular who was a great help to me when I made my first trip outside the US afterall and I don't THINK I need to say more !!! Anyway, I'm not so surprised its snagged, but the lives needing help is the main concern, so I repeat God be with them!!!


Sincerely,
Phil

[Keith Heitmann]

Russian Sailors Survive Submarine Scare
Crew of Seven Trapped for Days at the Bottom of the Sea
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, AP

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia (Aug. 7) - The seven men endured darkness and frigid temperatures for three days until their Russian mini-submarine was freed Sunday from the Pacific floor by a British remote-controlled vehicle as oxygen supplies dwindled.

"It was cold, cold, very cold. I can't even describe it," one crew member with reddish hair said as the sailors walked ashore with dazed looks and bloodshot eyes after their vessel was cut loose from cables that had snagged it.

The men aboard the AS-28 mini-submarine - six sailors and a representative of the company that made the ship - had opened the hatch and climbed out without assistance, officials said.

Six were taken to a hospital on the mainland for examination, waving to relatives as they went in. The seventh was kept aboard a hospital ship for unspecified reasons. They appeared to be in "satisfactory" condition, naval spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said.

At the edge of the gangplank leading off the ship that brought the crew to shore, the submarine's commander Lt. Vyacheslav Milashevsky held a long and solemn salute, then a slight smile crossed his face.

He was pale but told journalists he felt "fine" before climbing into a van with the others for the trip to the hospital. Another crew member in the van looked from side to side, gazing at the green trees and gray skies.

Milashevsky's wife, Yelena, said earlier that she was overjoyed upon hearing about the rescue. "I was happy. I cried from happiness. I danced," she told Channel One television.

The men had worn thermal suits to protect them against temperatures of about 40 degrees and were told to lie flat and breathe as lightly as possible during the rescue effort, officials said. To conserve electricity, lights were turned off and contact with the surface was kept to a minimum.

The crew member with reddish hair said he felt OK and was eager to be reunited with his wife and daughter. He was then ushered in the van taking the men to the hospital and did not reply when asked his name.

Russian authorities thanked the British and praised the international effort that included the United States, but criticism quickly arose over why the nation's once-formidable navy needed outside help.

The relief over the successful rescue attempt was in sharp contrast to the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in August 2000, when Russian authorities held off asking for outside assistance until hope was nearly exhausted; all 118 crew died.

President Vladimir Putin was criticized then for reluctance to seek international help and for remaining on vacation as the disaster unfolded. The president has been silent through the present crisis as well, although his spokesman Alexei Gromov said Putin was grateful to all those involved in the rescue operation.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who supervised the rescue operation from a navy ship, clenched his fists and shook them in happiness when he saw the red-and-white-striped sub surfacing.

"We have seen in deeds, not in words, what the brotherhood of the sea means," he said.

The Foreign Ministry also issued a statement praising the joint actions of the Russian, British and U.S. militaries in the "unique rescue operation." It also thanked Japan, which it said also responded to the request for help.

The United States sent remote-controlled underwater vehicles for the rescue. They arrived several hours later and were not used, but three American divers and a doctor accompanied the British vessel on its mission.

The jubilation came after three tense days that started Thursday when the 44-foot submarine stranded in 600 feet of water off the Kamchatka coast.

Russian ships first tried to tow the sub to shallower water where divers could reach it but were able to move it only about 60-100 yards in the Beryozovaya Bay.

The British remote-controlled Super Scorpio, sent in response to Russia's urgent call for help, arrived Saturday and spent six hours the next day cutting away the fishing net cables that had snarled the Russian vessel and its propellor.

British Royal Navy Commander Ian Riches said the most nerve-racking point in the operation was when the Russian submarine broke free from the cables and disappeared from the camera's sight before surfacing about 4:26 p.m.

"It was a difficult operation, but we enjoyed doing it," he told The Associated Press. "The team are over the moon that we have got these guys out alive."

The circumstances surrounding the cause of the accident remained unclear.

Putin ordered the defense minister to launch an investigation. Dygalo declined comment when asked about how the sub was trapped, saying only that it had been "engaged in planned maneuvers."

Some naval officials had said the submarine was participating in a combat training exercise when it got caught on an underwater antenna assembly that is part of a coastal monitoring system.

But Riches, the British commander, said the vessel had become tangled in fishing nets, as had been originally reported.

"The submarine was caught very firm into the fishing nets and had driven into them so that they were very tight and they actually looked and behaved like steel wires, so it was very, very difficult to cut through with cutting implements," Riches told The Associated Press.

Russia's cash-strapped navy apparently lacks rescue vehicles capable of operating at the depth where the sub was stranded.

The new crisis indicated that Putin's promises to improve the navy's equipment have had little effect. He was sharply criticized for his slow response to the Kursk crisis and reluctance to accept foreign assistance.

New criticism arose within hours of Sunday's rescue. Dmitry Rogozin, head of the nationalist Rodina party in the lower house of parliament, said he would demand an assessment from the Military Prosecutor's Office of the navy's performance in the incident, the Interfax news agency reported.

Rogozin said he wants to know why Russia has not acquired underwater vehicles similar to the ones provided by Britain and the United States and "why fishing nets and cables litter the area of naval maneuvers."

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[Phil Walker]

All I can say is "Thank God"! They're all safe and re-united with their families and that's what counts.

As to the whys and hows I guess Russia has a lot to learn. Being a little less covert within their own government much less the rest of the world needs consideration IMNSHO. But who am I to say?!

That's why we don't trust them (meaning the government). The people aren't so bad, but the government is corrupt so I guess we should pity and pray for them as there is little else we can do.

Ironic that even though we don't trust them we helped, so guess that says something for our side. MAYBE they'll learn from this, but maybe not. In any case well done to those who helped save these submariners!!!


Sincerely,
Phil

[Keith Heitmann]

Maybe something like this will promote a willingness to change in the Russian government.

[Phil Walker]

Yes ;D, all we can do is hope (and pray), and I will continue to do so !!!

Sincerely,
Phil