BBC piece on Russian submarine rescue .........................................................
Published: 2005/08/07 14:15:06 GMT
Russia to hold sub drama inquiry
Russia's president has ordered an investigation into how a navy vessel rescued with foreign help on Sunday managed to get trapped in deep water.
Seven men spent some 76 hours in a mini-submarine in the Pacific, as concern grew that oxygen would run out.
The Russians thanked a UK team whose underwater robot cut nets and cleared debris in which the craft was caught.
When the sub resurfaced, the men - who had also endured low temperatures - were able to climb out unaided.
Russian efforts to rescue the sub's crew, which included looping a cable onto the vessel to drag it to higher waters, had failed earlier.
As he came ashore in Patrovpavlovsk-Kamchatsky to a reception of relatives, sailors and local residents, the mini-sub's commander Vyacheslav Milashevsky saluted.
The Associated Press said he looked pale but walked confidently and told journalists he felt "fine".
Lt Milashevsky's wife Yelena spoke of her relief on hearing of his safe return.
"I danced. I was glad, I cried and I danced for joy," she told Russian Channel One TV.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov was sent to the Kamchatka peninsula, in the Russian Far East, to oversee rescue operations. He called the trapped crew "heroes".
However, there had still been no public word from or appearance by President Vladimir Putin by the time the rescued men went ashore on Sunday, three days after the ordeal began.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow says that questions are now being asked, including:
* why Russia still has no modern deep-sea rescue equipment, five years after the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in which 118 sailors perished
* why information on this accident from the navy was again late in coming and then deeply contradictory.
Pinned to the seabed
The Priz submersible vessel - itself a rescue vehicle - got trapped 190m (620ft) down as it was taking part in a training exercise, Russian officials said.
Initially, officials said it was snagged in vast fishing nets. But later reports said it was also caught up in a network of underwater antennae forming part of a military coastal surveillance system.
The network was described as a two-tier antennae lattice covering an area of 750 sq m and held in place by 60-ton anchors.
The British Scorpio craft involved in the rescue was flown to Kamchatka and taken out to sea on a Russian vessel.
The managing director of a British firm involved in the rescue - Rumic - told the BBC the operation had taken several hours.
"There were a lot of fishing nets which we had to cut away, but there were no steel cables, although some of it did look like steel. Initial reports could have suggested there were steel rather than nylon nets," Roger Chapman told the BBC.
Published: 2005/08/07 14:15:06 GMT
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