Russian Sub Disaster
Saturday’s Russian sub disaster, which killed 20 people, is mystifying. Russian officials said that the Nerpa’s automatic fire-suppression system accidentally went off, releasing Freon gas and suffocating the victims. But submarine crews are normally trained to put on oxygen masks whenever this happens (and it is not all that uncommon). So what happened?
This Newsweek interview with Mikhail Barabanov, editor-in-chief of Moscow Defense Brief, speculates that this was a case of too many people onboard with too little training. Once again, the human factor matters most of all:
Besides the crew, there was a crowd of civilians aboard—127 of the people on board at the time were civilian port workers and engineers. That means the boat was overcrowded. And the civilian guests on the boat did not know what to do in an emergency situation
Thanks to Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice, master sleuth, for alerting me to this report.
john said on November 13, 2008 at 5:53 pm
when things go wrong at sea they really go wrong i have scuba dived at sea and the ocean does not forgive if you make a mistake
always sad news at loss of life from any country
Sassenach said on November 16, 2008 at 10:32 am
There may be more to this “accident” than an accident:
“ This has created a stir among many analysts in Russia. The offending crew member is either a high ranking officer, or there is a conspiracy, there really isn’t much middle ground here. The system is designed so it can be activated locally, in the next adjacent apartment, or from a bridge central control station. There are safeguards that prevent the system from being activated except by a high ranking officer, codes that would prevent just anyone from activating the fire suppression system.”
You can read the whole thing here, at Information Dissemination: http://informationdissemination.blogspot.com/2008/11/nerpa-incident-goes-hollywood.html
Glenn Corbett said on November 17, 2008 at 2:31 am
There is also a question about the type of gas used in terms of its ozone-depleting characteristics - the US has banned the production of “halon” fire extinguishing agents for several years because of this problem.
john said on November 25, 2008 at 3:41 am
i just watched a program which told of a different story about a guy onboard who was related in some way to rebels in a former soviet state
will we ever no the real cause will our would they ever tell the truth
hxjohn said on December 03, 2008 at 12:33 pm
it is really sad story when you think that even in the 1930.s we saved those guys on the squal sub of the coast of the u.s.a i watched all of this from my home in udon thani and my heart when out to the wifes and children of the men r.i.p
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