What the hell took these guys so long to accept or ask for help???!!! Damn these fools!! I really hope those guys in the sub get rescued and soon. geez....-ng-
Russia Agrees to Accept Help From Foreigners in Sub Rescue
REPORTS SAY SUB DAMAGED ON SATURDAY
By PATRICK E. TYLER and SABRINA TAVERNISE
MOSCOW, Aug. 16 -- The Russian Navy agreed today to accept help from other nations in trying to rescue more than 100 crew members trapped aboard a crippled nuclear-powered submarine that lies broken and powerless on the floor of the Barents Sea.
Russians conducted four rescue missions today, each time making multiple attempts to attach a rescue capsule to the hull of the submarine Kursk. The Russian Navy has conducted seven separate rescue sessions over the last two days. But with underwater currents kicking up sand and rendering visibility near zero, all of those attempts to save the crew have ended in failure.
Some United States military officials are skeptical that any of the crew members remain alive aboard the Kursk, an American government official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The official said the military questioned whether any crew members had survived the mysterious explosion that sent the submarine to the ocean bottom on Saturday.
Russian officials have said they heard banging from sailors trapped inside the submarine. That tapping ended today, according to Russian military officials, who said it did not necessarily mean the crew had perished.
The Russians are awaiting the arrival of a British mini-submarine to assist in the rescue efforts and said today that they were willing to accept help from other nations as well after days of refusing proffers of aid.
Russian officials said today Kursk was equipped with a rescue module the crew could have used to escape from the submarine's conning tower. However rescuers have detected damage to the conning tower, or sail, of the vessel. Russian military officials speculate the bridge of the Kursk may have flooded in the accident that crippled the submarine. Such flooding would have prevented the trapped sailors from using the escape module.
President Vladimir V. Putin made his first public comments on the disaster today, saying the situation was critical. Later, the Kremlin and White House officials said Mr. Putin had spoken with President Clinton for about 25 minutes and discussed the stranded submarine. Mr. Clinton renewed the United States offer of help and Mr. Putin told him he was considering the offers of foreign assistance, an administration official said.
Immediately after news of the crash became public, Russian officials had said they did not need assistance, but today they formally requested help from the British and Norwegians. And a Russian Navy official said that after Mr. Putin spoke with Mr. Clinton, the Russian president ordered his military to accept whatever help was offered.
The first outside aid to reach the crash site is likely to be from a British rescue sub called an LR5, although it may be difficult for the British or anyone else to effect a rescue. The seas are high, the water bitterly cold and the underwater currents strong and unpredictable. Further complicating matters is the sub, which is listing at a 60-degree angle, making it difficult for any rescue capsule, pod or vehicle to connect with the sub.
The British rescue submarine arrived in Trondheim, Norway, after being flown from Scotland. It must be shipped by boat to the site of the crash, about 35 miles from the Russian coast. But it is unclear whether the sub can make it to the accident site before the crew runs out of oxygen.
The 23-ton LR5 sub is 30 feet long, nine feet tall and nine feet wide. British officials claim that the LR5 is the only vessel that is even theoretically capable of linking with a submarine listing as severely as the Kursk.
Information about what happened remains fragmentary and often contradictory. The Kursk apparently was damaged by an explosion and partly flooded on Saturday during training maneuvers of Russia's Northern Fleet. It is likely that the damage was compounded by the crash landing of the 14,000-ton sub on the bottom of the sea.
After examining the outside of the submarine, navy officials said the most likely reason for the accident was an explosion, possibly from a torpedo carried in the front of the vessel. The Russian government at first said the accident occurred on Sunday, but American officials have said United States Navy submarines detected the sound of an explosion on Saturday.
News reports from Russia have been misleading and inaccurate at times. Today the navy raised the official count of the number of crew members from 116 to 118.
During much of Tuesday, rescue efforts were hampered by winds that reached 45 miles an hour and whipped up waves of 13 feet.
Water temperatures near the submarine hovered at 39 degrees.
The Russians have been trying to use at least two small bell-shaped rescue capsules, each able to hold 10 to 20 people, to rescue the crew.
The capsules are equipped with video cameras and powerful searchlights and are normally run by three or four people, according to the RIA news agency. After the capsules are lowered to the scene of the accident, docking with the submarine requires a high degree of precision, the news agency said.
But sand kicked up by the underwater currents is eliminating almost all visibility, making the capsule very difficult to maneuver. During the rescue attempts one of the capsules was damaged, Russian officials said. Also, the batteries of another capsule ran low during a rescue session, officials said.
Even if they succeed in docking, the rescuers would probably have to carry out exhausted and injured crewmen. Some reports said that raising the rescue capsule, a simple chamber that hangs from a ship, could take several hours to avoid potentially fatal complications from decompression.
The Kursk is one of Russia's newest and most modern submarines, and the navy press office said that several high-ranking naval officers were on board to monitor the exercise along with the regular crew. Russian officials insisted that there were no nuclear weapons on board and that the submarine's reactors were shut down. Russia has been accused in the past of contaminating the Barents with radiation from discarded nuclear reactors.
Twenty-two Russian vessels were reported in the region struggling to find ways of saving their comrades.
The officials said that oxygen supplies were likely to last only till Friday and that they had not succeeded in attaching oxygen and fuel lines to the Kursk. They said that the only power on the submarine was a battery, which cannot be recharged underwater, condemning the men to a slow death of asphyxiation if they were not rescued.
Beyond that there was no information about the plight of the seamen and officers. Submarine experts could only speculate why the crew was not able to release an antenna, or how much of the vessel was flooded, or what exactly went so terribly wrong.
Senior American officials in Washington said two American submarines had been monitoring the Russian exercise, which began last Thursday and involved a variety of vessels and aircraft, with test firings of missiles. The officials said it was one of the largest exercises held by the Russians in recent years.
The American submarines detected a large explosion at about 7:30 or 8 on Saturday morning, the officials said, apparently from the Kursk. The source was not clear, but the sound was not that of a collision, they said.
American officials ruled out any collision with an American submarine.
Carlisle A. H. Trost, a retired admiral who was formerly chief of naval operations, said that even if the Kursk had a fully charged battery when it went down, the power would probably last only two or three days.
"The atmosphere must be fouling very rapidly," said Admiral Trost, who once commanded a nuclear-powered submarine. And "lights last only a very limited time."
The plight of the trapped seamen dominated Russian news. On one radio call-in show, a former professor demanded to know what could be done to persuade the authorities to seek outside help: "What signs to we need to draw, to whom must we appeal to get them to accept help?"
The crew's plight horrified Russians. "They are sitting and waiting," said Aleksandr Nikitin, an environmental activist who once was an engineer on a nuclear submarine.
"This accident sketches a pretty accurate picture of the state of the navy."
In the absence of concrete information, experts said it was not possible to say how long the men could go on. They could slowly run out of oxygen, succumbing to mental dullness and possibly convulsions before sinking into a coma and dying.
If there was a buildup of carbon dioxide, the brain would gradually stop functioning, the men would slip into unconsciousness and their hearts would weaken and stop. Or, if the electrical system had failed, they could freeze to death. Or they could perish from a lethal buildup of nitrogen, sulfides and toxic gases. |
