From AFP

 

More than 20 killed in Russian nuclear sub accident: spokesman

 

2 hours ago

 

MOSCOW (AFP) — More than 20 people were killed and another 20 injured when a fire extinguishing system was inadvertently activated aboard a Russian nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean, the Russian navy said Sunday.

 

"During sea trials of a nuclear-powered submarine of the Pacific Fleet the firefighting system went off unsanctioned, killing over 20 people, including servicemen and workers," said Captain Igor Dygalo, the navy's spokesman.

 

The accident did not apparently affect the submarine's nuclear reactor. "The submarine is not damaged, its reactor works as normal, and background radiation levels are normal," Dygalo stated.

 

Dygalo told AFP that President Dmitry Medvedev was being kept informed about the situation by Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and had already ordered a "full and meticulous" investigation of the incident.

 

The incident recalled the 2000 Kursk disaster, when 118 crewmen died when their nuclear submarine sank after an onboard explosion in the Barents Sea.

 

The Kremlin was harshly criticised at home and abroad for its sluggish and secretive response to the Kursk disaster, but seemed to be moving quickly to avoid a repetition this time.

 

Dygalo said Medvedev had also ordered the defence ministry to provide "all possible aid and support to the victims' families."

 

The submarine was carrying out sea trials when the accident occurred and the stricken vessel was ordered to put in to a port on Russia's far east coast temporarily, he added.

 

The spokesman did not say exactly where the incident occurred or specify which port the submarine would return to.

 

Twenty-one people with varying degrees of injuries were evacuated from the submarine, Dygalo said.

 

A total of 208 people were aboard the submarine when the accident happened, but of those only 81 were servicemen while the others were naval technicians and specialists.

 

Fire suppression systems on submarines are relatively sophisticated and may rely on chemical liquids. It was unclear however how the accidental activation of the system on the Russian sub resulted in the deaths and injuries.

 

The submarine, accompanied by a rescue ship, the Sayani, was steaming towards a Russian Pacific Ocean port for temporary basing and was due to arrive in some 10 hours, Dygalo said.

 

The destroyer Admiral Tributs went ahead of the convoy to deliver the injured to port, he added.

 

The name and type of the submarine was not released.

 

However, in October officials from the Amur shipyard reported the launch of sea trials for the nuclear submarine Nerpa, of the Shchuka-B type (Akula in NATO classification), the RIA Novosti news agency said. [CV32: Emphasis mine. It appears that this could be the submarine involved].

 

Since the Kursk disaster in August 2000, Russia has seen a string of accidents and mishaps with its naval submarines.

 

Nine sailors died aboard a K-159 submarine when it sank in the Barents Sea in August 2003 while being towed to port for decommissioning. Only one of the seamen on board was rescued alive.

 

In 2005, a mini-submarine of the Pacific Fleet got snared in a fishing net, leaving the crew trapped underwater with dwindling oxygen supplies.

 

A British rescue team using a high-tech mini-submarine managed to extract the Russian vessel and there was no loss of life.

Nasty accident. My thoughts and prayers are with all those involved.

From BBC News

 

Twenty die on Russian submarine

Page last updated at 11:44 GMT, Sunday, 9 November 2008

 

At least 20 people have died in an accident on a Russian nuclear submarine when a fire extinguishing system was activated by mistake.

 

Russian Pacific Fleet spokesman Igor Dygalo said both sailors and shipyard workers died in the accident, which occurred during sea trials.

 

The dead were suffocated by freon gas, which is used to put out fires as it removes oxygen from the air.

 

The vessel was not damaged and there was no radiation leak, Mr Dygalo said.

 

It is the worst incident for the navy since the sinking of the Kursk submarine in 2000, which left 118 dead.

 

Injured evacuated

 

Military prosecutors are investigating the incident, but the name and class of the submarine involved have not been officially revealed.

 

There were 208 people on board at the time, 81 of whom were servicemen. The dead are reported to be six sailors and 14 civilians.

 

Twenty-one injured people, reported to be suffering from various degrees of poisoning, were transferred from the submarine to the destroyer Admiral Tributs and taken to hospitals near Vladivostok.

 

The dead were transferred to morgues nearby after the vessel, which had been undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan, returned to port at Bolshoi Kamen, near Vladivostok, in the far eastern Primorsky territory.

 

Capt Dygalo said the incident happened after the fire extinguishing system "went off unsanctioned".

 

But questions are being asked about why there were so many casualties.

 

Vera Sanzhonova, the wife of one of those on board, said she had not had word about her husband since the accident.

 

"My husband is not in the list of injured, and not in the list of dead. Many have already called their wives and said that they are okay, but he hasn't called me. I know that some people have not been identified yet," she said.

 

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says that in normal cases of a fire on board a submarine, the area would be evacuated and sealed off before pumping in freon gas.

 

RUSSIAN SUBMARINE DISASTERS

 

6 Sept 2006: Two die after fire in Viktor-III class Daniil Moskovsky

28 Aug 2003: Nine die after decommissioned November class K-159 sinks

12 Aug 2000: 118 die in sinking of Oscar-II class Kursk

7 Apr 1989: 42 die after fire in Soviet-era Komsomolets

 

The gas removes oxygen from the air - to put out the fire - but if anyone is still trapped inside that area, they face suffocation.

 

Vladimir Markin, an official from Russia's top investigative agency, later said forensic tests had confirmed that freon was the cause of death.

 

Reports say the incident occurred in the nose of the submarine. The nuclear reactor, which is in the stern, was not affected.

 

"I declare with full responsibility that the reactor compartment on the nuclear-powered submarine is working normally and the radiation background is normal," Capt Dygalo said, quoted by Itar-Tass news agency.

 

A shipyard source told the RIA Novosti news agency the vessel was the K-152 Nerpa, an Akula-class submarine, but this has not been confirmed.

 

Russian Pacific Fleet spokesman Igor Dygalo said there had been no radiation leaks

 

The Nerpa is due to be leased to the Indian navy, and Indian naval personnel were due to travel to Vladivostok earlier this month to train on board the submarine ahead of its transfer, according to the website Indian Defence.

 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is being kept fully informed about the incident, his press service said.

 

Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Kolmakov and Navy Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Vysotsky are flying to the scene of the incident.

 

Russia's worst submarine disaster happened in August 2000, when the nuclear-powered Kursk sank in the Barents Sea. All 118 people on board died.

 

The then president, Vladimir Putin, was criticised for being slow to react to the incident and reluctant to call in foreign assistance.

From RIA Novosti

 

Russian officials blame sub deaths on fire safety fault - 2

14:26 | 10/ 11/ 2008

 

VLADIVOSTOK, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - A commission investigating an accident on a Russian nuclear submarine that killed 20 people and injured another 22 said on Monday the probable cause was a malfunction in the vessel's fire safety system.

 

The tragedy, the worst since the sinking of the Kursk in 2000, occurred late on Saturday while the Nerpa nuclear-powered submarine was undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan. Three submariners and 17 shipyard workers died in the accident - 208 people, 81 of them submariners, had been on board the vessel.

 

"The preliminary official conclusion is the unauthorized operation of the fire extinguishing system," Ksenia Gusentsova, spokeswoman for the chief federal inspector for the Primorye Territory, Russia's Far East, told RIA Novosti.

 

A source in the investigating commission said on Monday that "all the scheduled investigations will be completed within the next seven days."

 

The source said the chain of events would be reconstructed a day or two after the completion of the investigation.

 

He added that it had also been established that safety system of the submarine's nuclear reactor had been operating in automatic mode during the trials.

 

Earlier Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo, an aide to the Russian Navy commander, said that the submarine's reactor had not been affected by the accident, which occurred in the nose of the vessel, and radiation levels were normal.

 

Meanwhile, Khabarovsk Governor Viktor Ishayev said on Monday that the investigation revealed that the fire safety system had operated correctly and suggested that human error could have been a factor in the deaths.

 

"The ship has the latest fire-extinguishing system, a computer-activated alarm" Ishayev said. "According to the investigation, there is no evidence that a person was involved in the system's operation."

 

Investigators said the deaths were caused by suffocation after Freon gas was released following activation of the submarine's fire safety system.

 

He added that those working in the area that had donned breathing apparatus had survived, while those who failed to use safety equipment had all perished.

 

Gennady Illarionov, a former naval submariner, told RIA Novosti, "You can't rule out that some of the civilians had not been issued with portable breathing apparatus or didn't know how to use them,"

 

And a high-ranking source at the Pacific Fleet's headquarters also questioned why portable breathing apparatus had not been used, "Perhaps the submariners did not notice the gas being released and when they realized it was already too late."

 

Tuesday has been declared a day of mourning in Primorye Territory, where the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet is based.

 

The incident is the worst for the Russian Navy since the sinking of the Kursk 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 lack of funding. Akula II class vessels are considered the quietest and deadliest of Russian nuclear-powered attack submarines.

 

The Nerpa started sea trials on October 27.

 

Gusentsova said the accident investigation commission included the commander-in-chief of the Navy, Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky, the first deputy defense minister, Gen. Col. Alexander Kalmykov, the chief federal inspector for the Primorye Territory, Sergei Lelyukhin, as well as investigators from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.