Russian Navy Research Submarine Catches Fire, Killing 14

[Boats]

Russian Navy Research Submarine Catches Fire, Killing 14
By: Andrew E. Kramer - The New York Times - 7-2-19
RE: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/02/w...rine-fire.html

Photo of Russian Navy Base in Severomorsk, Russia
RE: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019...y=90&auto=webp

MOSCOW — A Russian military submarine designed to map and study the seafloor, but not armed or powered by a nuclear reactor, caught fire and killed 14 sailors, the Russian military said on Tuesday.

The lethal fire broke out on a vessel based at the same Arctic port, Severomorsk, as the Kursk nuclear submarine that sank in 2000, killing 118 sailors in a searing tragedy for the Russian Navy that posed an early test of President Vladimir V. Putin’s leadership.

In the Kursk sinking and subsequent accidents in Russia’s submarine fleet, the navy has been slow in acknowledging the gravity of emergencies or the scale of human loss or the environmental threat.

The military announced the latest fire and casualties on Tuesday, but said the accident happened a day earlier. It said the sailors had died from smoke inhalation. The statement offered no explanation for the delayed announcement.

It was not clear if the vessel was submerged at the time of the fire, and the military did not specify its location, other than to say it had been within Russian territorial waters. The Severomorsk base is on the Murmansk Fjord, which opens to the Barents Sea.

The Ministry of Defense issued a statement describing the stricken vessel as a “scientific experimental deep water apparatus intended to study the natural environment and sea floor.” The vessel was returned to the base at Severomorsk, according to the ministry.

The Kursk, a strategic missile submarine powered by twin nuclear reactors, sank after a torpedo exploded during a test launch. The Russian military, threadbare after the Soviet collapse, lacked rescue equipment and waited days before appealing for international help.

Even as the scale of the tragedy became apparent, President Putin waited several days before interrupting a vacation to visit the military base, a fiasco he has avoided repeating with subsequent disasters.

Naval officials initially said they were in communication with surviving members of the crew. Later, when it became clear that all aboard had died, the navy announced the crew had perished instantly.

The military again shifted the account when Russian and Norwegian divers retrieved 12 bodies from the wreck including one of an officer who had survived long enough to write a goodbye note to his family and say that 23 sailors were trapped alive but understood they would die. The note was found in his pocket.

[Boats]

Russia navy crew killed in deep sea submersible fire in far north
By: Staff Writer for The Defense Post - 7-2-19
RE: https://thedefensepost.com/2019/07/0...rsible-arctic/

Fourteen Russian Navy personnel have died in a fire on a deep submersible, Russia’s defense ministry said on Tuesday, July 2, in the latest in a string of disasters and accidents to hit the country’s navy.

The tragedy in the far north has echoes of the sinking of the Kursk submarine in 2000 that claimed the lives of 118 personnel and shook the first year of Vladimir Putin’s presidency.

“On July 1, a fire broke out during bathymetric measurements on a scientific research deep-sea submersible,” the defense ministry said.

Fourteen crew members died as a result of poisoning from the fumes of the fire in Russia’s territorial waters, a ministry spokesperson confirmed to AFP.

The fire has been put out, the ministry said, adding an investigation was under way.

“The investigation is being conducted by the commander-in-chief of the navy.”

The defense ministry provided no other details. The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta said the fire happened on board an AS-12 Losharik submarine, while RBC reported that it took place in a deep-sea submersible deployed from the submarine.

Novaya Gazeta said the fire killed the entire crew of 25 officers

The research was conducted to study areas near the seabed and the seabed itself in the interests of the Russian naval fleet, according to the defense ministry.

The vessel is now situated at a military base in the closed northern city of Severomorsk which is located on the Kola Peninsula above the Arctic Circle.

Putin has yet to respond publicly to the disaster.

A military expert, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, dismissed claims that the fire happened during scientific research.

“Usually it’s a cover for different type of work conducted on the seabed” like laying cables, the expert said.

Russia has seen a number of such accidents in the post-Soviet period.

In August 2000, the Kursk submarine sunk in the Barents Sea with the loss of all 118 aboard.

An inquiry found that a torpedo had exploded, detonating all the others.

Putin, who stayed on holiday for several days after the disaster, was severely criticised for his response.

Moscow also turned down foreign offers of assistance for the rescue effort.

In another accident in 2008, twenty people – three naval officers and 17 civilians – were killed by poison gas after a vessel’s fire-extinguishing system was accidentally activated during trials in the Sea of Japan.

In 2011, one of Russia’s biggest nuclear submarines caught fire while undergoing repairs in dock in the northern Murmansk region.

Later it was reported the sub was armed with long-range nuclear missiles when it caught fire.