Since 08-07-05
Bad news then Good News on 7 man Russian submarine rescue
Since 08-07-05
BAD and Hopeful NEWS
U.S. Navy assists in effort to recover
Russian mini-sub
From: Waspscpo@aol.com [mailto:Waspscpo@aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2005 3:17 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: U.S. Navy assists in effort to recover Russian mini-sub
http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1014274.php
U.S. Navy assists in effort to recover Russian mini-sub
By Yevgeny Kulkov
Associated Press
August 5, 2005
BAD NEWS
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia — A Russian mini-submarine carrying seven sailors snagged on
a fishing net and was stuck 625 feet down on the Pacific floor Friday. A Russian
vessel later towed the stranded sub to shallower waters as the United States and
Britain rushed unmanned vehicles there to help in rescue efforts.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.
A Russian rescue vessel hooked a cable onto the mini-submarine and was towing it
to shallower waters, the commander of the Pacific Fleet was quoted as saying
later Friday.Admiral Viktor Fyodorov said the rescue vessel was trying to raise
the stranded vessel as it was being towed, the Interfax news agency
reported.Earlier, Interfax quoted Fyodorov as saying the crew’s 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.The mini-sub, called
an AS-28, initially was too deep to allow the sailors to swim to the surface on
their own or divers to reach it, officials said. However, dragging the sub into
shallower waters could make such an escape or rescue possible.
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 President Vladimir Putin was
criticized severely for waiting several days before asking for international
assistance. Also, Russian divers discharged by the navy for lack of funds said
at the time their own offers to help were rebuffed.This time, Russia waited just
a day before seeking help.
Both accidents raised 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. 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 to Russia to help save the submarine.
Hopeful NEWS
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 Super Scorpio has an instrument that can cut 1-inch-thick
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.
Since the Soviet collapse, the Russian navy has struggled to find funds to
maintain and repair its ships and has had to scale back its modernization
program.Associated Press reporters Robert Burns in Washington and Greg Risling
in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)
=====================================================
Navy submersible joining Russia
submarine rescue
Staff and agencies
05 August, 2005
By Charles Aldinger 48 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military will fly an unmanned, Navy mini-submarine to
Russia on Friday to join an attempt to rescue seven Russian sailors trapped
aboard a military mini-submarine on the Pacific floor, Navy officials said.
"The deep-diving submarine ‘Super Scorpio‘ will be flown from San Diego to
Petropavolvsk on an Air Force C-5 transport along with a team of Navy operators
at the request of the Russian Navy," said Lt. JG Maria Miller, a Navy
spokeswoman at the Pentagon. Miller told Reuters that the little vessel, capable
of cutting through steel cable, would be moved by truck to a Russian ship to be
taken to the scene in an attempt to aid in the rescue.
The spokeswoman said that the submarine and its operating team from the Navy‘s
Deep Submergence Unit based at the big naval base in San Diego could leave
California as early as Friday morning.
The little U.S. Navy submarine is four feet long, four feet wide, eight feet
high and weighs 4,500 pounds (2045 kg). Miller said it was capable of diving to
an ocean depth of 5,000 feet. "It has the capability of cutting steel cable one
inch(2.54 cm) thick," she said. In Russia, officials said that they had
requested help and suggested that the crew of the little Russian submarine,
apparently tangled in a fishing net, might have only 24 hours of oxygen left
aboard the vessel.
"We‘re going to move the resources that we think can be helpful to the scene as
rapidly as possible," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters in
Washington.
"Efforts are being led by the Russian government and it (U.S.assistance) is
something that they have asked for." Whitman noted that the U.S. move followed
steps by the American and Russian navies to work more closely in such areas as
undersea rescue.
The two militaries conducted a bilateral undersea rescue exercise in the
Mediterranean off the coast of Italy in June. "While every situation is
certainly unique and presents its own set of challenges, it‘s not something that
hasn‘t been thought through.
And it has been rehearsed to some degree and practiced," the spokesman said.
LeadingtheCharge.com - News that matters
=====================================================
GOOD NEWS
All 7 Rescued From Russian
Mini-Submarine
Aug 7, 12:25 PM (ET)
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia (AP) -
Seven people on a Russian mini-submarine trapped for nearly three days on the
Pacific floor were rescued Sunday when a British remote-controlled vehicle cut
away undersea cables that snarled their vessel, allowing it to surface.
The seven, whose oxygen supply had been dwindling, appeared to be in
satisfactory condition when they emerged, navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said.
They were examined in the clinic of a naval ship, then transferred to a larger
vessel to return to the mainland.
About five hours after their rescue, six sailors were brought 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.
At the edge of the gangplank leading to shore, the mini-sub's commander, Lt.
Vyacheslav Milashevsky, held a long and solemn salute, then a slight smile
crossed his face. Pale, but walking confidently, he told journalists he was
"fine" before climbing into a van for the drive to the hospital.
His wife, Yelena, said earlier that she was overjoyed when she learned the crew
had been rescued.
"My feelings danced. I was happy, I cried," she told Channel One television.
Another crewman in the van swiveled his head back and forth, gazing at the green
trees and gray skies.
The red-and-white mini-sub, the AS-28, surfaced at 4:26 p.m. local time Sunday,
some three days after becoming entangled in 600 feet of water Thursday. It was
carrying six sailors and a representative of the company that manufactured it.
"The crew opened the hatch themselves, exited the vessel and climbed aboard a
speedboat," said Rear Adm. Vladimir Pepelyayev, deputy head of the naval general
staff.
"I can only thank our English colleagues for their joint work and the help they
gave in order to complete this operation within the time we had available - that
is, before the oxygen reserves ran out."
The United States also sent three remote-controlled underwater vehicles for the
rescue, but they arrived several hours after the British vehicle and were not
used.
Both countries sent rescue teams after the Russian navy made an urgent appeal
for international help - unlike during the August 2000 sinking of the nuclear
submarine Kursk, when authorities held off asking for outside assistance for
days. All 118 aboard the Kursk died.
Russian ships tried to tow the mini-sub and its entanglements to shallower water
where divers could reach it but could only move it less than 100 yards in
Beryozovaya Bay, about 10 miles off the Kamchatka coast.
Then, a British remote-controlled Super Scorpio cut away the cables snarling the
44-foot-long mini-sub. Once the obstructions were removed, there was a last
spasm of anxiety as the submarine stayed still.
"Then after two or three minutes, it broke free and within three minutes it
surfaced," Ivanov said.
The men aboard the mini-sub had waited out tense hours of uncertainty as
rescuers raced to free them before their air supply ran out. They put on thermal
suits to insulate them against temperatures of about 40 degrees inside the sub
and were told to lie flat and breathe as lightly as possible to conserve oxygen.
To save electricity, they turned off the submarine's lights and used
communications equipment only sporadically to contact the surface.
"The crew were steadfast, very professional," Pepelyayev said on Channel One
television. "Their self-possession allowed them to conserve the air and wait for
the rescue operation."
In an echo of the Kursk sinking, President Vladimir Putin had made no public
comment by Sunday on the mini-sub drama. Putin remained on vacation as the Kursk
disaster unfolded, raising criticism that he appeared either callous or
ineffectual.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who went to Kamchatka to supervise the
operation, praised the help provided by Britain and the United States.
"We have seen in deeds, not in words, what the brotherhood of the sea means," he
said.
Officials said the Russian submarine was participating in a combat training
exercise and got snarled on an underwater antenna assembly that is part of a
coastal monitoring system. The system is anchored with a weight of about 66
tons, according to news reports.
The sub's propeller initially became ensnared in a fishing net, they said.
The events and an array of confusing and contradictory statements - with wildly
varying estimates of how much air the crew had left - darkly echoed the sinking
of the Kursk.
Russia's cash-strapped navy apparently lacks rescue vehicles capable of
operating at the depth where the sub was stranded, and officials say it was too
deep for divers to reach or the crew to swim out on their own.
The submarine's problems indicated that promises by Putin to improve the navy's
equipment apparently have had little effect. He was criticized for his slow
response to the Kursk crisis and reluctance to accept foreign assistance.
The new crisis has been highly embarrassing for Russia, which will hold an
unprecedented joint military exercise wit
h China later this month, including the
use of submarines to settle an imaginary conflict in a foreign land. In the
exercise, Russia is to field a naval squadron and 17 long-haul aircraft.
New criticism arose within hours of the mini-sub's crew being rescued. 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 wanted 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."
"It appears the naval command is not in control of the area of naval exercises,"
he said, according to Interfax.