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Strategies & Market Trends : Piffer OT - And Other Assorted Nuts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Oral Roberts who wrote (48843)	8/15/2000 9:54:58 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 63513

Well that's just horrific. Did you see this article? Rescue Options Limited Depth Leaves Sailors Few Options for Escape Monday, August 14, 2000 By Michael Evans and Ian Brodie Time is running out for the Kursk's crew of more than 100 Russian sailors, stranded on the disabled submarine deep beneath the Barents Sea. Click for interactive Their chances of escape seem slim, with much depending on the submarine's depth, its position and the extent of flooding within it. Monday, it appeared that the Kursk may be listing at 60 degrees and that several compartments were flooded, suggesting, in turn, that it had suffered critical damage. Reports from the scene indicated that it was resting on the seabed, between 330ft and 500ft from the surface. Although Western experts suggested a number of options for a rescue, the Russians appear to have opted for an attempted salvage operation, if only to reposition the submarine with the use of cranes to gain easier access to the hatch. John Hudson, an expert with BAE Systems Marine, said that submarines were designed to be "very robust" and he would be surprised if there was progressive flooding from one compartment to another. He outlined three possible rescue plans. The first, which he said was the safest method, was to use a deep-sea rescue submersible — a mini-submarine — which could be clamped to the hatch of the crippled boat, providing a link from one vessel to the other, after "equalizing the pressure". The second and third alternatives would entail the crew using the escape tower, wearing immersion suits and "bobbing" up to the surface, but the depth of water made this a hazardous operation. Hudson said the most dangerous option was the third, which he described as a "rush escape", in which the whole crew tried to exit the submarine at the same time through the hatch. The safer option was for one or two to go through the hatch at a time, but this method was slow and, if time was not on their side, the rush escape option might be their only alternative. Hudson said that the listing of the submarine meant that any of these three options would be more difficult to carry out successfully. Former Commander Jeff Tall, now director of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, said that flooding and the loss of steam reactors that generated power would cause the boat to remain stuck on the seabed. "A fall-back electric motor would not be powerful enough to propel the 13,000-ton submarine away from the seabed," he said. "The most likely escape route would be for the men to climb into an escape tower, usually located near to the torpedoes, and to be rescued by mini-submarines." The Kursk is the seventh nuclear submarine lying on the ocean floor, five of them Russian. There are also two American boats — the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion.