Rescuers Race to Free Trapped Submarine

[December27JJB]

This is so nerve wrecking and depressing. It makes me even more clusterphobic thinking about it.
I hope they get to the sub in time to rescue these people trapped in there. :(
______________________________________
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer




PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia - Russian crews looped cables under an underwater antenna snaring a mini-submarine on the Pacific floor Saturday and would try to lift them closer to the surface before air ran out for seven trapped sailors, a navy spokesman said.

Capt. Igor Dygalo described the rescue effort as U.S. and British crews with robotic undersea vehicles raced to reach the site of the accident off the remote Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East.

Authorities could not say exactly how much air remained on the mini-sub, which was some 625 feet below the surface, but an admiral said Saturday the supply should last until the end of the rescue.

Dygalo said two ships had worked a cable beneath the sub entangled in an underwater antenna assembly that is part of Russia's coastal monitoring system. Officials initially said the sub's propeller was snarled by a fishing net as it participated in military exercises Thursday.

Dygalo said rescuers hoped to raise the sub to a depth of at least 165 feet, which would allow divers to reach the 44-foot-long AS-28 and help the crew swim to the surface.

Rescuers made contact with the crew Saturday evening and said their condition was "satisfactory" despite temperatures of 41 to 45 degrees in their vessel, Russia's Pacific Fleet commander, Adm. Viktor Fyodorov, said.

It wasn't clear how contact was being made or why it was only intermittent.

"I assure you, work is continuing without interruption through night and day and will not stop until we actually lift our guys up to the surface," Fyodorov said in televised comments.

U.S. and British planes flew in unmanned submersibles, known as Super Scorpios, on Saturday. They were being taken by ship to the accident site and could be used to cut the sub loose from the entangling equipment if the Russian effort to lift the vessel failed. Russian news reports said the antenna array was held down by two concrete anchors weighing 60 tons.

The plea for international assistance underlined the deficiencies of Russia's once-mighty navy and strongly contrasted with the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk five years ago, when authorities held off asking for help until hope was nearly exhausted. All 118 crew died in that accident.

But even with Moscow's quick call for help, rescue workers were racing to free the men before their oxygen ran out.

Navy officials gave varying estimates of the air supply. Rear Adm. Vladimir Pepelyayev, deputy head of the navy's general staff, said Saturday the air would likely last to the end of the day and possibly through Sunday. Fyodorov gave a similar estimate, but later was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying there was enough to last until Monday.

"I think it should be enough to last to the end of the (rescue) operation," Pepelyayev said.

Fyodorov said a ship with the British equipment and rescuers should arrive at the site by 9 a.m. local time Sunday (4 p.m. EDT Saturday), Interfax reported.

The cash-strapped Russian navy apparently has no rescue vehicles capable of operating at the depth where the sub is stranded. Its rescue efforts have focused on trying to grab and drag the sub to shallower water using trawling gear.

The array of confusing and contradictory statements darkly echoed the sinking of the Kursk. That disaster shocked Russians and deeply embarrassed the country by demonstrating how the once-mighty navy had deteriorated as funding dried up following the 1991 Soviet collapse.

The new crisis underlined that promises by President Vladimir Putin to improve the navy's equipment have apparently had little effect. Authorities initially said a mini-sub would be sent to try to aid the stranded one, but the navy later said the vehicle wasn't equipped to go that deep.

Putin was sharply criticized for his slow response to the Kursk crisis and reluctance to accept foreign assistance. By midday Saturday, Putin had made no public comment on the latest sinking, but Russian media said Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov left for Kamchatka after a Kremlin meeting of top security officials.

The airlifting of a U.S. underwater vehicle to Kamchatka marks the first time since World War II that a U.S. military plane has been allowed to fly there. Since Soviet times, the peninsula has housed several major submarine bases and numerous other military facilities, and large areas of it are off limits to outsiders.

[December27JJB]

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Teams from the United States and Britain have arrived in Russia to help rescue seven Russian sailors trapped in a mini-submarine 625 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

A U.S. Air Force C-5, loaded with two unmanned submersible rescue vehicles along with 40 submariners, divers and other experts, landed in eastern Russia about 3:15 a.m. ET, a U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman said. A U.S. C-17, carrying equipment and specialists, landed about two hours later.

"This is an international effort, involving the British and Japanese, and led and coordinated by the Russians," said spokesman John Yoshishige.

A British plane, also carrying an unmanned rescue vehicle, landed about two hours earlier. The Scorpio 45 has three cameras as well as cable-cutting equipment.

Just before 4 a.m. ET, the Russian news agency Interfax reported the rescue equipment would arrive at the mini-sub in about three and a half hours.

Russia's deputy Naval Chief of Staff Rear Adm. Vladimir Pepelyayev told Interfax on Saturday the rescue mission should be completed within 24 hours "because the onboard air supply is not limitless."

Interfax quoted Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Viktor Fyodorov as saying there is enough oxygen to hold till 2 p.m. Monday, Kamchatka time, which would be Sunday evening EDT.

Authorities recently communicated with the mini-sub's crew, who remain in good condition, he said. He also said British rescuers would start their work several hours from now, around 4 p.m. EDT.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Saturday with officials including the prime minister, the minister of defense and the head of federal security services. In the meeting, Putin ordered Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to fly to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Although initial reports said the propeller of the sub, an AS-28, became stuck on some fishing nets or cable, Interfax later reported the sub was fitted with a coastal observation aerial, held to the ocean floor by at least one anchor.

The apparatus is keeping the sub from rising, and Interfax said the anchors were to be blown up in order to raise . An earlier plan to cut the antenna and anchors apparently was abandoned. It was unclear whether a fishing net or cable was also involved.

The sub is nearly 625 feet deep on the Pacific floor in Beryozovaya Bay, 43 miles south of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the southern end of the Kamchatka Peninsula on Russia's east coast.

Interfax, citing Fyodorov, reported early Saturday that the sub was moved 100 meters to shallower water.

Fyodorov said there was enough oxygen aboard to last more than a day, Interfax reported. He had earlier told the news agency there was enough oxygen to last until Monday and that the crew was ordered "to stay in a horizontal position and save strength and air."

Details about how the vessel was moved were not immediately available.

Interfax had earlier reported that the Russian navy was using trawling nets to try to snag the sub, and that an object had been captured. But at the time, authorities weren't sure if the object was the distressed sub.

Russian authorities are maintaining contact with the seven member crew and they are reportedly in "satisfactory" condition. Interfax quoted Russian Navy Rear Adm. Vladimir Pepelyayev as saying the rescue efforts would continue around the clock.

Earlier, U.S. Navy Lt. Ryan Perry told CNN, "We understand, being sailors ourselves, the distress that they're feeling right now. We'll do everything we possibly can to bring about their safe return."

The C-5 left from the San Diego North Island Naval Station. Its crew and rescue vessels, called Super Scorpios, will be put aboard a Russian ship and taken to the site.

The Super Scorpios -- equipped with video cameras, lights and agile robotic arms that can cut up to one inch of steel cable -- will be piloted by remote control as they try to untangle the mini-sub from the netting, the Navy said.

The arms are so dexterous that they can pick up a dime from the ocean floor, said Capt. Jacque yost, the Navy public affairs officer at the California station.

A third U.S. underwater vehicle, called Deep Drone 8000, was to leave from Andrews Air Force Base later Friday.

In addition, said Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo, Japan is sending ships that are to arrive Tuesday.

The sub incident comes almost five years to the day when the giant Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the icy waters of the Barents Sea on Aug. 12, 2000 and all 118 crew members died in the incident.

Russian authorities were slow to ask for international assistance during the Kursk incident, but this time they promptly asked for help.

Officials said the Russian navy contacted the U.S. naval attache office in Moscow immediately after the incident in an effort to get in contact with the U.S. Pacific fleet.

U.S. Navy officials then held a high-level overnight meeting in Hawaii and decided to send the rescue vehicles.

"We're just trying to get there as quickly as possible," the U.S. Navy's Perry told CNN.

[MLA]

I was so happy to hear that the Russian sub has surfaced, and the crew is alive!

From CNN.com:

Trapped sub surfaces, crew safe

Sunday, August 7, 2005; Posted: 12:33 a.m. EDT (04:33 GMT)

U.S. military personnel unload rescue equipment Saturday in Petropavlorsk-Kamchatsky, Russia.
Image:

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A Russian mini-submarine that had been trapped at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean since Thursday surfaced Sunday, and all seven of the crew members on board are alive and in satisfactory condition, officials said.

Authorities had been concerned about the amount of oxygen available to the crew after the mini-submarine became entangled and trapped on the ocean floor, nearly 190 meters (625 feet) below the surface in Berezovaya Bay -- 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on Russia's far eastern coast.

"I would like to thank our British colleagues for their aid in saving the crew," said Vladimir Pepelyayev, deputy head of the Russian navy's headquarters, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax. "The crew's condition is satisfactory."

Following a request for assistance from Russia, U.S. and British rescuers had responded to the scene.

A British crew lowered into the water an unmanned rescue vehicle called a Scorpio 45, which cut the items pinning the sub underwater.

The U.S. also had sent two unmanned rescue vehicles, called Super Scorpios, but they did not leave the port of Petropavlovsk. A U.S. crew, along with equipment, was taken to the site by a Russian ship.

The sub was raised about 4:20 p.m. (3:20 a.m. GMT), said U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman John Yoshishige. It apparently had been entangled in a fishing net, he said.

"It's a great effort by all involved, and we're very pleased about that," U.S. Pacific Fleet Cmdr. Mark McDonald told CNN.

Yoshishige said a U.S. Navy doctor was evaluating the crew's condition, but confirmed all seven members were alive.

Pepelyayev told Interfax the crew opened the hatch of the mini-sub on their own.

The rescue effort earlier was briefly delayed when the Scorpio 45 experienced functioning problems and briefly was brought to the surface, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

After the sub became stuck, Russia swiftly asked for international assistance, conscious of avoiding the tragedy five years ago when their request to help save the crew of the nuclear submarine Kursk was slower.

Those 118 crew members died when the submarine sank in the Barents Sea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Saturday with officials and had dispatched Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov to Kamchatka.

[lawyerlee]

I was so happy to hear that the Russian sub has surfaced, and the crew is alive!
Thank you for sharing the wonderful news! I'm so pleased to hear there is a happy ending. :)

[MLA]

Thank you for sharing the wonderful news! I'm so pleased to hear there is a happy ending. :)


Gladly!