7 crewmen trapped in Priz DSRV - @196m down

[bradv]

See the story on Pravda

I'm sure all our prayers are with them.
The sea is the common enemy of all brave submariners, no matter what their country.

[novagator]

I was just coming here

I was just coming here to post that story.

[quote]Russians trapped on sea bed in sub

Friday, August 5, 2005; Posted]



Edited By Novagator on 1123238454

[tsenecal]

this is also front page

this is also front page news on cnn.com

[wayne frey]

I have sent word to

I have sent word to Russia of our payers are with them

[captain nemo12]

I read a similar case

I read a similar case in one of my books where it is stated that Dr.Robert Ballard (did I spell his name right?) got trapped with his crew aboard the minisub Delta got its prop entangled while on its mission to observe the sunken Lusitania. Luckily, the Delta was equipped with a prop-detach system where the propeller can be detached from the sub in case of misadventures. I just saw this on the news and I really hope that the men will be home and safe very soon.

[anonymous]

The drama heightens.......
Steve Reichmuth

http://eimg.net/harvest_xml/NEWS/img/20050806/3d5c78c0_3ca7_155272005-08-061746895162.jpg


Rescuers Race

[color=#000000]The drama heightens.......
Steve Reichmuth




Rescuers Race to Free Trapped Submarine

U.S. military personnel unload a power generator from the USAF C-5 transport plane at the airport in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia Saturday, Aug. IVAN SEKRETAREVAugust 06, 2005 10]

[anonymous]

http://www.navy.mil/view_photos_top.asp

http://www.navy.mil/view_ph....t_row=1
http://www.navy.mil/view_ph....t_row=1


U.K. Vehicle Lowered to Aid

http://www.navy.mil/view_photos_top.asp

http://www.navy.mil/view_ph....t_row=1
http://www.navy.mil/view_ph....t_row=1


U.K. Vehicle Lowered to Aid Russian Sub

August 06, 2005 5:57 PM EDT
MOSCOW - Crews began lowering a British remote-controlled underwater vehicle to a Russian mini-submarine trapped deep under the Pacific Ocean on Sunday, hoping to reach seven trapped crewmen before their air supply ran out.

British crews were working with Russian naval authorities to lower the Super Scorpio unmanned robotic vehicle down to the sub, which was snarled by a military listening antenna 625 feet below the surface nearly three days ago.

Capt. Igor Dygalo told The Associated Press that workers began lowering the Super Scorpio at around 11:30 a.m. local time.

Meanwhile, an American team with two more vehicles was being loaded onto a ship not far from the port of Petropavlovsky-Kamchatsky, and was expected to leave shortly for the rescue site in Beryozovaya Bay, about 10 miles off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula.



Edited By Dolphin on 1123391380

[bradv]

They're free!!!!

All 7 men are

They're free!!!!

All 7 men are OK - thanks to the Poms and a quick responce by all.
Good to see this great news.

[Guest]

Yep, nice to see some

Yep, nice to see some good news for a change.

Andy

[captain nemo12]

Phew! http://www.subcommittee.com/forum/icon_smile.gif

Phew!

[anonymous]

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050807/050807_sub_rescue_hlrg.h2.jpg

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Interactives/News/International/Europe/AS-28_Priz.jpg

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i....LOC.gif

Rescued submariners





http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i....LOC.gif

Rescued submariners return to Russia
Vessel with 7 sailors aboard was freed by British unmanned submersible.

Updated: 11:09 a.m. ET Aug. 7, 2005
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia - Seven people on a submarine trapped for nearly three days under the Pacific Ocean were rescued Sunday after a British remote-controlled vehicle cut away undersea cables that had snarled their vessel, allowing it to surface.

The seven, whose oxygen supplies had been dwindling, appeared to be in satisfactory condition when they emerged, naval 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 of them 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.

The mini-sub's commander, Lt. Vyacheslav Milashevsky, was pale and appeared overwhelmed when he got off the ship that brought the men to shore. But he told journalists he was fine before climbing into a mini-van to take him to the hospital.

His wife, Yelena, earlier said she was overjoyed when she learned the crew had been rescued.

My feelings danced. I was happy. I cried, she told Channel One.

The sub surfaced at 4:26 p.m. local time Sunday, some three days after becoming entangled in 600 feet of water off the Pacific Coast on Thursday and after a series of failed attempts to drag it closer to shore or haul it closer to the surface. 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, he said.

Race against time
The men aboard the mini-sub 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 F 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 submarines 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.

But in sharp contrast to the August 2000 Kursk disaster, when authorities held off asking for help until hope was nearly exhausted, Russian military officials quickly made an urgent appeal for help from U.S. and British authorities. All 118 people on board the Kursk died, some surviving for hours as oxygen ran out.

Series of rescue attempts
As U.S. and British crews headed toward the trapped sub, Russian officials considered various ways of freeing the vessel.

Russian ships had tried to tow the sub and its entanglements to shallower water where divers could reach it, but were able to move it only about 60-100 yards in the Beryozovaya Bay about 10 miles off the coast of the Kamchatka peninsula, which juts into the sea north of Japan.

By Sunday afternoon, a British remote-controlled Super Scorpio cut away the cables that had snarled the 44-foot mini submarine and it was able to come to the surface on its own.

Even the British rescue was hampered though. A mechanical problem with the Super Scorpio forced workers to bring the rescue vehicle to the surface, just after the discovery of a fishing net caught on the nose of the submarine, Russian officials said.

The United States also dispatched a crew and three underwater vehicles to Kamchatka, but they never left the port.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who went to Kamchatka to supervise the operation, praised the international efforts.

We have seen in deeds, not in words, what the brotherhood of the sea means.

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 subs propeller initially became ensnared in a fishing net, they said.

Echoes of Kursk sinking

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.

Russias 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 submarines problems indicated that promises by Putin to improve the navys 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 with 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-subs 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 Prosecutors Office of the navys performance in the incident, the Interfax news agency reported.

Rogozin said he wants 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.

© 2005 The Associated Press.



Edited By Dolphin on 1123440176

[novagator]

I have read that they

I have read that they were entangled in a fishing net, but some places let it slip that it was in fact a sosus listening device. I wonder which is it really was.