Terrible nuclear submarine accident
As soon as the word ‘submarine’ is come from, the phrase ‘silent assassin’ floats in front of the eyes of modern naval and naval history buffs. Since it is challenging to identify, submarines are a strategic weapon for every modern navy in the present age.
In today’s article, we will learn about a terrible submarine accident. Since the list of casualties is quite long, today’s report has been arranged with only a brief description of the K-278 Comsomolates nuclear-powered submarine accident.
Comsomolates fire
Kursk is not the only accident in the Soviet Union. No other country has had so many submarines crashes as the Soviet Union. In 1989, a fire broke out inside a Plavix class submarine called K-278 Comsomolates, and various events that started from it sank off the coast of Norway. It was a testbed of the Soviet Navy and a submarine used to test new technology. This submarine, made of titanium pressure, was very different from most submarines in the world. Where ordinary submarines have an average water depth of 200-500 meters, the K-278 Comsomolates was designed to submerge at 1,000 to 1,500 meters. The record set by a combat submarine with a dive of 1,024 meters in 1984 is still intact.
On April 7, 1989, during a combat patrol, a fire broke out in the rear engineering compartment of the 335-meter-deep submarine due to an electric short circuit. The captain shut down the nuclear reactor and ordered the sub to float on water. The air vent of the fire compartment could not be closed as the ship’s electrical system was damaged. As a result, the fire gets terrible as it gets oxygen supply.
The submarine floated on the water 11 minutes after the accident. Captain Venin stayed in the ‘submarine’ with the four officers, instructing the sailors to leave the ship.
As the submarine began to sink, the captain and the other four men climbed into the escape capsule and climbed onto the water. But no one but one was able to get out of the tablet. Meanwhile, the sea was rough. The water temperature was 2 degrees Celsius. One by one, the sailors began to die due to hypothermia in the bone-chilling cold. In the meantime, Soviet rescue planes arrived and dropped several lifeboats, but most of the sailors were lost due to wind and high waves. Eighty-eight minutes after the sinking of the submarine K-278 Comsomolates, a nearby fishing boat heard a radio message and rushed to the rescue. By then, only 27 of the 69 sailors had survived.
Of the 42 people killed, nine died due to accidental fire and other causes. The additional 30 died of hypothermia in the bitter cold of the Barents Sea. The Russian navy has been widely criticized for failing to respond quickly to the incident. No action has been taken to rescue the submarine, which is 1,700 meters deep in the sea. As the area is off the coast of Norway, Russia subsequently sealed off the ‘submarine’ after the country exerted intense pressure to rescue nuclear torpedoes and reactors from underwater. Russia has been under pressure from Norway and international environmental groups since it was accused of emitting radiation from a torpedo plutonium warhead in 1994. Later the Comsomolates are again well sealed. According to Russian authorities, it will remain intact until 2025. Norway monitors the matter every year by testing water samples.