WASHINGTON, D.C., August 7 (RIA Novosti, Arkady Orlov) - Officials at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet headquarters in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, have highlighted the role of American divers in an international effort to bring to the surface the seven-man crew of a Russian mini-submarine trapped for three days beneath the Pacific Ocean, off the Kamchatka peninsula.
The officials said in a press release Sunday that three of the U.S. Navy divers involved in the rescue effort provided crucial help for the British underwater robot Scorpio in slicing through fishing nets and debris entangling the submarine.
They also said that on board the Russian ship from where the Scorpio crew were conducting the rescue operation, a U.S. naval medic was on standby to treat the submariners, who had faced a dwindling oxygen supply and temperatures as low as 6C (43F).
The medic and the divers arrived in Kamchatka Saturday, as part of a 32-member U.S. Navy rescue team. They had been flown in by a C-5 jet from the Naval Air Station North Island, in San Diego Bay, California, home to the Deep Submergence Unit for submarine rescue.
