MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Viktor Litovkin). The AS-28 Priz bathyscaphe of Russia's Pacific Fleet sank on Thursday, August 4, off southern Kamchatka.
Reports from Pacific Fleet headquarters say that the incident happened early on the morning of August 4 (in the evening of August 3 Moscow time) 75 kilometers south of Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky, in Berezovaya Bay.
The AS-28 rescue craft (Priz) 13.5 meters long and 5.7 meters high was engaged in a regular diving exercise from aboard a fleet ship. During the diving it unexpectedly caught at some object and was unable to rise to the surface. The assumption is that a length of rope, a fragment of a fisherman's net, or an electric cable could have trapped the bathyscaphe. Later on, the main naval headquarters reported that the craft while diving had its screw caught up in a net. When attempting to free itself of it, the net got wound up on the screw, and the craft came to a stop at a depth of 190 meters (according to other sources, 220 meters) where divers cannot work.
In the view of experts whom we approached for comment, in particular Vice-Admiral Yevgeny Chernov, Hero of the Soviet Union, the situation is very serious. "But I am not losing optimism," the admiral said. "There is one more chance to save the crew." The optimism of the specialist who has written a book about Soviet submarine disasters and who is well known among navy men rests on the supposition that the Pacific Fleet will be able to prepare and lower a second similar craft to the one in distress. The second craft must be at the disposal of Pacific Fleet headquarters. It is rescuers from the second bathyscaphe who are to render help to their colleagues.
The Project 1855 bathyscaphe Priz was developed at the Nizhny Novgorod central design bureau Lazurit under its director Nikolai Kvasha, Hero of Socialist Labor. Its working depth is 500 meters, but, if necessary, the craft can go as deep as 1,000 meters. Usually, the bathyscaphe is crewed by three men. They must save 20 men from a crippled submarine. Oxygen supplies for three men last 120 hours. If the saved complement is included, the period is down to 10 hours. It is this limited amount of pure air that is causing concern among other specialists whom we interviewed.
Rear-Admiral Oleg Kustov believes that the situation at the bottom of Berezovaya Bay is far more complex than we are told. If the men have stayed at such a depth for two days, the remaining air may not suffice to keep them alive for another two or three days, as was announced at the outset of the rescue effort. Nor are very convincing reports about "a fisherman's net wound up around the screws." The bathyscaphe has a minimum of three ballast tanks, which are filled with water when diving. The craft may float up in two ways: by propelling itself or by blowing its ballast tanks. If the screws are inoperable, why nothing was reported of attempts to blow these tanks? And if silence is maintained, then things do not look the way we are being persuaded they are, the admiral says.
His skepticism naturally dates back to a tragedy of five years ago, when on August 12, 2000, in the Barents Sea, an unsafe torpedo blew up and grounded the Project 949 A Kursk submarine with 118 crewmembers aboard. Within the first hours of the announcement, navy officials tried to convince citizens of Russia that the submarine was supplied with piped high-pressure air and technical contact was established with the men... Today it is well known that nothing of the sort was ever done. Some experts believe that the catastrophic situation with the Kursk may be repeated in Berezovaya Bay.
The foundation for such claims is the fact that during the exercise the vessel that carried the Priz bathyscaphe was to have had two of them. If the second one was missing, such exercises, according to safety rules, could not be held. Ocean depths are a hostile environment. They may spring any surprise. Not to think of that, not to be prepared for any eventuality, is non-professional, to say the least. Alas, no preventive steps had been taken, as the AS-28 situation shows. Just as in the case of the Kursk.
The Russian Navy has already asked the U.S. Pacific Fleet command to help with the rescue of the craft and its crew. Japan is giving similar aid. Four Japanese rescue vessels are on their way to the craft in distress. The only problem is the distance from the U.S. coast and Japan - it is too great. It will take not less than two to three days to reach the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula, where Berezovaya Bay is situated. And Captain First Rank Igor Dygalo, aide to the Russian navy commander-in-chief, said that the supply of air left on the disabled submersible off Kamchatka is only for twenty-four hours. Assistance may arrive too late.
And yet the Pacific Fleet say that they do not lose hope. And together with the near and dear ones of the sailors we will not lose it either. We still have twenty-four hours to spare.
