More than 20 killed in Russian nuclear sub accident

**wayne frey** · 11-08-2008, 11:58 PM

I have sent condolences to

I have sent condolences to the St. Petersburg Submarine Club, and others inside Russia.

**davietait** · 11-09-2008, 06:35 AM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7718156.stm

This is the Akula II

BBC NEWS | Europe | Twenty die on Russian submarine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7718156.stm

BBC, News, BBC News, news online, world, uk, international, foreign, british, online, service

This is the Akula II that was due to be leased to the Indian Navy

**u-5075** · 11-09-2008, 08:58 AM

Here and there, there are

Here and there, there are more bits and pieces of information.

News video
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=sub ... a=N&tab=wn

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,214 ... 31,00.html

Russia | 09.11.2008
Deadly Russian Sub Accident Recalls Kursk Disaster
At least 20 people were killed and 22 injured on a Russian nuclear-powered submarine when the ship's fire safety system was accidentally set off on board, a Russian naval spokesman said Sunday, Nov. 9.

The submarine's atomic reactor remained undamaged and radiations levels aboard the vessel were normal, the naval spokesman said.

"While carrying out sea trials of one of the nuclear-powered submarines in the Pacific Fleet, the firefighting system went off unsanctioned, killing over 20 people." Captain Igor Dygalo told Interfax news agency. "Among the victims were ship-building workers and servicemen."

Dygalo did not identify the submarine involved and did not explain how the accidental activation of the ship's fire extinguishing system resulted in the casualties.

Russian news agencies, however, reported the victims died as a result of inhaling freon gas released by the ship's fire safety system.

President Dmitry Medvedev was being kept updated on the situation, Russian news agencies reported Sunday. Medvedev ordered the defense ministry to investigate the cause of the accident and to provide "all possible aid and support to the victims' families," Dygalo said.

Sailors, citizens among victims

The Russian sub was ordered to dock at a port on Russia's east coast after the accident hit during sea exercises, Dygalo said. Dygalo did not specify the name or class of the vessel and gave no detail on its location at the time of the accident.

There were 208 people on board during the sea trials, but only 81 were servicemen while the rest were specialists from a ship-building company.

The injured were evacuated from the stricken submarine aboard an accompanying ship and were taken to a hospital on shore where they were being treated, the ITAR-TASS and RIA Novosti news agencies quoted officials as saying.

A high-ranking naval official was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying that the accident struck the bow of the vessel.

The Russian Navy has seen a string of disasters since nuclear submarine Kursk sank in 2000 from an onboard torpedo explosion that killed all 118 crew members. The Kremlin was heavily criticized for not responding effectively to save lives in the tragedy.

Nine Russian sailors died in the sinking of a submarine in the Barents Sea in 2003 as the vessel was being brought in to be retired.

In 2005, seven sailors rescued by a British using hi-tech mini-submarines to ferry out the crew of a small Russian sub who had spent days caught meters deep in fishing nets.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00566.html

Twenty die in Russian nuclear sub accident
By Guy Faulconbridge
Reuters
Sunday, November 9, 2008; 5:23 AM

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Twenty people died and more than 20 were injured in an accident aboard a Russian nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean, the navy said Sunday, in the worst submarine disaster since the Kursk sank eight years ago.

A Russian naval spokesman said 208 people were on board the submarine when an accident involving the activation of a fire extinguishing system occurred during sea trials. He said the nuclear reactor was intact and radiation levels were normal.

The death toll makes it the worst mishap for the accident-prone Russian navy since the Kursk nuclear submarine sank in the Barents Sea in 2000 with the loss of all 118 sailors.

Russian news agencies quoted the navy spokesman, Captain Igor Dygalo, as saying 20 people had died in the accident in the Pacific Ocean during routine testing when the fire extinguishing systems went off by accident.

He had earlier put the death toll at "at least 20."

Most of those killed were from the Amur Shipbuilding Enterprise which built the ship, Russian media quoted the shipbuilder as saying.

Dygalo told Reuters later that at about 10:30 a.m. Moscow time (2:30 a.m. EST) the submarine had returned to the naval base of Bolshoi Kamen in the Pacific.

"It returned under its own steam, under escort by the Sayany rescue vessel. It is being moored at the anchorage," Dygalo said. "The radiation levels on the ship are normal."

Dygalo did not give the name or class of the submarine or specify where it was located.

He said a Russian destroyer had brought the injured to Vladivostok, the main city on Russia's Pacific coast and headquarters of the Pacific Fleet.

President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Defense Ministry to carry out a full inquiry into the causes of the accident, the Kremlin press service said.

Former Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, who had been president for just a few months at the time of the Kursk disaster, was criticized at home for his slow reaction to that incident.

Russia's navy has suffered a string of fatal accidents, despite sharp increases in funding and Kremlin attempts to use its largely Soviet-era fleet to project an image of strength abroad and at home.

SUMBARINE TESTING

Russia's navy said the accident occurred in the Sea of Japan Saturday while the submarine was having its final trials by a group of navy sailors and staff from the construction company.

The submarine was supposed to enter full service with the navy at the end of this year. Russian news agencies said chemicals used by the submarine's fire extinguishing system were released by error, although it was unclear why.

A Russian anti-submarine destroyer, the Admiral Tributs, evacuated the injured from the submarine and brought them to Vladivostok for treatment.

"The injured have been brought to the coast where they are receiving qualified medical assistance in the naval hospital," Dygalo said.

Russian media quoted naval sources as saying the accident occurred aboard the Nerpa, a Project 971 Shchuka-B attack submarine, known inside NATO as an Akula-class submarine.

The Nerpa embarked on trials on the open seas late last month, according to local media. Construction of the Nerpa was started in 1991 but funding dried up in the chaos of the 1990s, media reports said.

**u-5075** · 11-09-2008, 10:23 AM

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/intern ... 1000&ty=ti

Below are selected

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/intern ... 1000&ty=ti

Below are selected abstracts from this article. With three times more than its usual crew present there could have been not enough of the portiable breathing gear available in the compartment having the problem. And with 17 civilian employees killed, versus 3 sailors, it could have been that the civilians weren't trained or knowledgeable enough to realize the threat and quickly put on the apparatus.

November 9, 2008 - 12:56 PM
Twenty die in Russian nuclear sub accident
By Yuri Maltsev

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters)

Prosecutors investigating the latest incident said they suspected the victims died after inhaling a toxic gas used as a fire suppressant when the vessel's fire extinguishing systems went off unexpectedly.

It was not clear why the portable breathing gear usually issued to Russian submarine crews did not save them.

"Twenty people died," the Prosecutor-General's Office said in a statement. "Results of a preliminary investigation show that death occurred as a result of freon gas entering the lungs."

The navy said 208 people -- or nearly three times more than its usual crew -- were on board the submarine when the fire extinguishing system went off. Many of them were specialists from the vessel's manufacturer who were preparing to hand it over to the navy.

Seventeen of the dead were employees of Amur Ship-Building Enterprise and three were sailors, prosecutors said.

"One can assume that the submariners did not notice the release of the gas, and when they did feel it, it was too late," the source told the agency.

One military analyst said it was possible not all of those on board had breathing gear.

"It is possible that some of the people lingered (putting on the apparatus) or they did not have the apparatus at all," Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technology, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

**Guest** · 11-09-2008, 02:01 PM

My condolences to the St.

My condolences to the St. Petersburg Submarine Club as well and to the Russian people.

Dave Amur Ship yard

**u-5075** · 11-09-2008, 09:30 PM

More information is coming out.

More information is coming out.

Page not found – The Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/corrections/ci_10939625

selected sbstracts from......

Accident on Russian nuclear sub suffocates 20
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press Writer
Article Launched]http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1110/p04s01-woeu.html[/url]

selected abstracts from...

Russian sub accident points to Navy's shortcomings

At least 20 people died on the sub, which media reports say was to be handed over to India.
By Fred Weir | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
The malfunction of the firefighting system, which spewed deadly freon gas through the forward compartments of K-152 Nerpa, an Akula-II class attack sub undergoing diving trials in the Sea of Japan, has a little-known international twist. Though neither government has officially admitted it, both Indian and Russian media have been reporting for months that the 12,000-ton Nerpa was to be handed over to the Indian Navy early next year under a 10-year lease.

The acquisition would multiply India's military capabilities in the sensitive Indian Ocean, and raise questions about Russia's role in proliferating nuclear technologies. Indian news agencies reported last week that a team of 40 Indian naval specialists was slated to arrive later this month in Vladivostok to learn about the ship.

The Nerpa's patchwork history may have contributed to Saturday's disaster. "They are using bits of Soviet equipment and hardware, brushing off the rust and putting in new stuff," says Mr. Felgenhauer. "That's just not a good way to develop operational equipment."

Moreover, Russia's military establishment has a crushing shortage of qualified experts. "That submarine was being constructed over a period of 15 years, and was the only one being built at the Amur shipyard during that time," says Alexander Goltz, a military expert with the online newspaper Yezhednevnaya Gazeta. "How many of the original specialists and skilled workers would have stayed on during that period? Very few. Everything conspired to make that ship very vulnerable."

Initial reports indicated that the accident resulted from a malfunction of the Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) system, which is used to quickly suffocate a major fire with a stream of a freon mixture. The foam is only supposed to be released when a submarine compartment is engulfed in flames. Any contact with it will kill an unprotected person instantly. [????]

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f22hPDjsNeo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nMPwmiEVdM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx5kkdNHFuo

**u-5075** · 11-10-2008, 12:58 PM

Speculation..... Dying for a cigarette??

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3kN

Speculation..... Dying for a cigarette??

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3kN ... wD94C3TMG0

SELECTED ABSTRACT

Reports]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-219[/url]

**u-5075** · 11-10-2008, 09:12 PM

SELECTED ABSTRACT

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1 ... 372249.htm

The Moscow

SELECTED ABSTRACT

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1 ... 372249.htm

The Moscow Times Â» Issue 4028 Â» News

Poor Preparation Blamed for Deaths on Sub
11 November 2008

"While older generations of submarines had fire safety systems that were activated on the captain's command, new submarines have systems that switch on automatically, said another former submarine captain, Nikolai Markovtsev, Kommersant reported.

An engineer at the shipyard in Bolshoi Kamen, in the Primorye region, where the submarine was being tested, told Interfax that the fire extinguishing system activated in the summer without cause, but the problem seemed to have been solved.

The Investigative Committee of the State Prosecutor's Office released a list of the dead on Monday. Among the three naval dead was the head of the submarine's chemical systems, Alexander Podbornov. The 17 civilians dead included the shipyard engineer in charge of the tests, Viktor Druzhinin."

**u-5075** · 11-11-2008, 11:00 AM

SURVIVORS' STORIES

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2e ... dtjOuBcyWg

Survivors recall

SURVIVORS' STORIES

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2e ... dtjOuBcyWg

Survivors recall panic on Russian submarine]http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081111/118250572.html[/url]

Fire safety system 'not to blame for Russian nuclear sub deaths'
RIA Novosti, Russia - 33 minutes ago
The source also said the submarine had the required amount of individual breathing kits on board, adding however that it was too soon "to make any final ...

**wayne frey** · 11-11-2008, 04:04 PM

Igor Kurdin, is indeed, an

Igor Kurdin, is indeed, an interesting man. A driving force in the day-to-day activitiies of the St. Petersburg Submarine Club in St. Petersburg Russia (of which I am a member by invitation).
This incident, and the Kursk, bring the Club as a go-to place for the familys of the crew, and others. They also aid the widows and orphans of the Russian submariners.
They have already responded to my condolences with thanks, and updated me.

**u-5075** · 11-13-2008, 06:36 PM

Sailor charged in deadly Russian nuclear sub accident

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iW4 ... xovd6fqm_w

Sailor charged in deadly Russian nuclear sub accident
17 hours ago

MOSCOW (AFP) â€” A Russian sailor has been charged for causing an accident where 20 people were gassed to death on a nuclear submarine in the country's worst tragedy since the 2000 Kursk disaster, officials said on Thursday.

"The suspect is one of the sailors of the crew, who for no reason set off the fire extinguishing system, as a result of which 20 people died and 21 were hospitalized," investigator Vladimir Markin told Vesti-24 television.

"This sailor has already testified to his guilt," said Markin, a spokesman for investigators probing Saturday's accident about the Nerpa submarine, which raised new doubts about the safety of Russian military hardware.

"In connection with this, the suspect faces charges... of negligence leading to the death of two or more people," Markin said, citing an article in Russian criminal law that carries a penalty of up to five years in person.

Markin said investigators were continuing to probe the incident, Russia's worst naval disaster since the sinking of the Kursk submarine in the Barents Sea in 2000, in which all 118 sailors on board died.

In Saturday's accident, 20 people died when the Nerpa's fire-extinguishing system was triggered as the submarine was being tested in the Sea of Japan, pumping Freon gas into the vessel and depriving them of oxygen.

Authorities said there was no fire aboard the vessel, a new Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine.

Fatalities included three navy personnel and 17 civilians, many of them shipyard workers participating in the tests.

Independent defence experts said the sailor facing charges might end up being a scapegoat for what was a broader failure.

"It will be absolutely unfair if this sailor is designated the sole person to be guilty of what happened," Alexander Golts, a defence commentator at Yezhednevny Zhurnal magazine, told AFP.

"In Russia there is always a tendency to look for a scapegoat," said Pavel Felgenhauer, another defence expert. "The critical lack of qualified personnel in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union is the cause of most disasters."

An official charged with the oversight of law-enforcement agencies also criticised the investigation, the Interfax news agency reported.

"It is certainly troubling that the investigative committee found the guilty party so quickly," Anatoly Kucherena, head of the law-enforcement committee in the Public Chamber, a government advisory body.

Defective gas masks may have been responsible for many of the deaths on the Nerpa, the Russian tabloid Tvoi Den reported, citing survivors.

"I saw people in convulsions ripping off their masks. I also had a breathing apparatus on, but it only worked for seven to 15 minutes," the newspaper quoted warrant officer Yevgeny Ovsyannikov as saying.

"Some of the dead were found with their gas masks on. The breathing apparatuses simply didn't work," another survivor, Dmitry Usachyov, was quoted as saying by Tvoi Den.

Russian media initially reported that the Nerpa was to be leased to India, but officials later denied there were any negotiations with the Indian navy.

The disaster comes at a time when Russia has been flexing its military muscle around the world, with Russian warships due to participate in joint exercises with the Venezuelan navy in the Caribbean Sea later this month.

**u-5075** · 11-17-2008, 09:49 AM

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081117/118352822.html

Crew member 'tampered with temperature

Crew member 'tampered with temperature sensor on Nerpa sub'

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081117/118352822.html

The deaths of 20 people on board the Russian nuclear submarine the Nerpa were caused by a crew member entering the wrong data into a temperature sensor, the Kommersant paper said on Monday.

Crew member 'tampered with temperature sensor on Nerpa sub'
14:30 | 17/ 11/ 2008

MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti) - The deaths of 20 people on board the Russian nuclear submarine the Nerpa were caused by a crew member entering the wrong data into a temperature sensor, the Kommersant paper said on Monday. (INFOgraphics)

The business daily said, quoting a source close to the investigation, that sailor Dmitry Grobov is suspected of having entered the wrong temperature data for the submarine's living quarters, which caused the fire safety system to release Freon gas.

The source said that according to information obtained from the sub's Rotor data block, similar to an aircraft's black-box, "the temperature...increased sharply all of sudden and the fire safety system reacted as programmed."

The daily said that at the time of the incident Grobov was on a scheduled watch and the access code to the fire safety system was written in pencil on the surface of the equipment.

The tragedy occurred late on November 8 while the Nerpa was undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan. Three submariners and 17 shipyard workers died in the accident. There were 208 people, 81 of them submariners, on board the vessel at the time.

However, former Navy officers have told the paper they doubt that Grobov was solely to blame as it is impossible for one person to activate the system, which is protected from unauthorized activation by multiple levels of confirmation.

The submarine's reactor was not affected by the accident, which took place in the nose of the submarine, and radiation levels on board remained normal.

Investigators earlier announced that they had brought criminal charges against the crew member, and that he faced up to seven years in jail.

"Military investigators have determined the person who activated, without permission or any particular reason, a fire safety system on board the submarine. He is a sailor from the crew, and he has already confessed," Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Investigation Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office, said on November 13.

The incident is the worst for the Russian Navy since the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in 2000 when all 118 sailors died.

The construction of the Akula II class Nerpa nuclear attack submarine started in 1991, but was suspended for over a decade due to a lack of funding. Akula II class vessels are considered the quietest and deadliest of all Russian nuclear-powered attack submarines.

Based in the Russian Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the Amur Shipbuilding Plant has built 270 vessels, including the Nerpa and another 55 nuclear submarines since it was established in 1936.

**u-5075** · 11-19-2008, 06:46 AM

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081119/118396437.html

Experts blame computer glitch for

Experts blame computer glitch for Russian nuclear sub deaths

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081119/118396437.html

The deaths of 20 people on board the Nerpa nuclear submarine could have been caused by a computer glitch, not a crew member, a Russian daily reported on Wednesday.

Experts blame computer glitch for Russian nuclear sub deaths

MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) -- The deaths of 20 people on board the Nerpa nuclear submarine could have been caused by a computer glitch, not a crew member, a Russian daily reported on Wednesday. (INFOgraphic)

The tragedy occurred late on November 8 while the Nerpa was undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan. Three submariners and 17 shipyard workers died in the accident. There were 208 people, 81 of them submariners, on board the vessel at the time.

"We submariners are unanimous], was used. It is cheaper than pure Freon. Possibly, they simply wanted to economize," he said.

He added that there were unmistakable signs of poisoning, which could not have been caused by Freon: "People were collapsing as though they had been shot."

Breathing Freon is generally safe, but if the concentration in the air is high then suffocation can result.

He said 46 people had been hospitalized, not 21 as officially announced.

It was previously reported that the deaths were caused by a crew member activating the fire safety system without permission or by the wrong data being entered into the temperature sensor.

Submariner Dmitry Grobov is suspected of having entered the wrong temperature data for the submarine's living quarters, which caused the fire suppression system to release the Freon gas.

However, former Navy officers have said they doubt that Grobov was solely to blame since it is impossible for one person to activate the system, which is security protected from unauthorized activation by multiple authentication levels.

The submarine's nuclear reactor was not affected by the accident, which took place in the nose section, and radiation levels on board remained normal.

Investigators earlier announced that they had brought criminal charges against the crew member, and that he faced up to seven years in jail if found guilty.

The incident is the worst for the Russian Navy since the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in 2000 when all 118 sailors died.

The construction of the Akula II class Nerpa nuclear attack submarine started in 1991, but was suspended for over a decade due to a lack of funding. Akula II class vessels are considered the quietest and deadliest of all Russian nuclear-powered attack submarines.

Based in the Russian Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the Amur Shipyard has built 270 vessels, including the Nerpa and another 55 nuclear submarines since it was established in 1936.

**u-5075** · 11-20-2008, 06:01 PM

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081120/118424556.html

Suspect in Nerpa sub

Suspect in Nerpa sub tragedy to have psychological evaluation

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081120/118424556.html

A submariner suspected of causing the deaths of 20 people by mishandling a temperature sensor on board the Nerpa submarine will undergo psychological testing, an investigation spokesman said on Thursday.

Suspect in Nerpa sub tragedy to have psychological evaluation

VLADIVOSTOK, November 20 (RIA Novosti) - A submariner suspected of causing the deaths of 20 people by mishandling a temperature sensor on board the Nerpa submarine will undergo psychological testing, an investigation spokesman said on Thursday.

The tragedy occurred late on November 8 while the Nerpa was undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan. Three submariners and 17 shipyard workers died in the accident. There were 208 people, 81 of them submariners, on board the vessel at the time.

"The suspect's psychological examination is prescribed by law," the spokesman said. "I cannot say how long it will take or where it will take place."

He added that a technical examination of the submarine and its systems would last at least a month.

Submariner Dmitry Grobov could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty of triggering the fire suppression system without permission.

Ensign Yevgeny Ovsyannikov, a technical specialist on the Nerpa, told Komsomolskaya Pravda that the tragedy could have been caused by a computer glitch, not a crew member.

"We submariners are unanimous: a computer program failed. Previously, the submarine fire suppression system had always started manually on the commander's orders. Now it is launched electronically," Ovsyannikov was quoted as saying in Wednesday's edition of the popular daily.

He added that it was the first time the computerized system had been used on the submarine during the sea trials and that the computer had malfunctioned during tests while docked.

An expert who requested anonymity suggested that a toxic form of Freon could have been used in the fire suppression system.

The incident is the Russian Navy's worst since the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in 2000, taking the lives of all 118 on board.

More than 20 killed in Russian nuclear sub accident

More than 20 killed in Russian nuclear sub accident

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