footit123
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Russian mini-sub outcome (as per jimdew\'s post)
Trapped Russian sub has surfaced; crew alive
CTV.ca News Staff
A Russian mini-submarine that had been trapped deep below the Pacific Ocean has surfaced and all seven crew members are alive, Russian news agencies have reported.
On Sunday, a British remote-controlled underwater device had mostly cut loose the sub from an underwater military antenna used for coast monitoring. But then rescuers found the nose of the AS-28 sub was trapped in some fishing net -- and the Super Scorpio developed some mechanical problems, said the Russian news agency Interfax.
Those problems forced workers to bring the device to the surface.
However, the sub finally returned to the surface and the crew emerged. They were then taken for medical check-ups.
The Super Scorpio has robotic arms on it, which worked to free the AS-28 sub from its entanglement with the antenna more than 180 metres beneath the surface.
The sub became trapped Thursday. Time was of the essence, as the crew could have run out of oxygen.
An American team with two more Super Scorpios had been heading for the rescue area about 16 kilometres offshore.
Officials initially said the sub's propeller was snarled by a fishing net as it participated in military exercises Thursday. Then word came the vessel was actually trapped by the antenna. Russian news reports said two concrete anchors weighing 60 tonnes held down the antenna system.
The sub was launched from a ship on Thursday as part of a combat training exercise in the Pacific Ocean off Russia's Kamchatka peninsula.
The 180-metre depth was too deep for divers to go down to the sub, or for the trapped sailors -- who were always said to be in "satisfactory" condition despite low temperatures of five to seven degrees Celsius inside the sub -- to swim up.
The accident occurred almost exactly five years after the nuclear submarine Kursk sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea after explosions on board. All 118 seamen on board died.
At that time, Russian President Vladimir Putin came under severely criticism for not asking quickly for international help.
By Sunday morning, Putin had made no public comment about the current sub crisis. However, Sergei Ivanov, his defence minister, was travelling to the rescue operation.
Trapped Russian sub has surfaced; crew alive
CTV.ca News Staff
A Russian mini-submarine that had been trapped deep below the Pacific Ocean has surfaced and all seven crew members are alive, Russian news agencies have reported.
On Sunday, a British remote-controlled underwater device had mostly cut loose the sub from an underwater military antenna used for coast monitoring. But then rescuers found the nose of the AS-28 sub was trapped in some fishing net -- and the Super Scorpio developed some mechanical problems, said the Russian news agency Interfax.
Those problems forced workers to bring the device to the surface.
However, the sub finally returned to the surface and the crew emerged. They were then taken for medical check-ups.
The Super Scorpio has robotic arms on it, which worked to free the AS-28 sub from its entanglement with the antenna more than 180 metres beneath the surface.
The sub became trapped Thursday. Time was of the essence, as the crew could have run out of oxygen.
An American team with two more Super Scorpios had been heading for the rescue area about 16 kilometres offshore.
Officials initially said the sub's propeller was snarled by a fishing net as it participated in military exercises Thursday. Then word came the vessel was actually trapped by the antenna. Russian news reports said two concrete anchors weighing 60 tonnes held down the antenna system.
The sub was launched from a ship on Thursday as part of a combat training exercise in the Pacific Ocean off Russia's Kamchatka peninsula.
The 180-metre depth was too deep for divers to go down to the sub, or for the trapped sailors -- who were always said to be in "satisfactory" condition despite low temperatures of five to seven degrees Celsius inside the sub -- to swim up.
The accident occurred almost exactly five years after the nuclear submarine Kursk sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea after explosions on board. All 118 seamen on board died.
At that time, Russian President Vladimir Putin came under severely criticism for not asking quickly for international help.
By Sunday morning, Putin had made no public comment about the current sub crisis. However, Sergei Ivanov, his defence minister, was travelling to the rescue operation.
