Only one man survived in the escape capsule.Įfforts to inflate other emergency rafts were unsuccessful. When it finally surfaced, two crew members were blown into the ocean and the others left inside perished from toxic smoke. The capsule failed to detach until the submarine hit bottom, where the pressure mounted to 2,200 pounds per sq. They attempted to escape in the emergency capsule, a device unique to Soviet submarines. Several officers and crewmen, including Commander Vanin, remained inside. The submarine began to sink, stem-first, into the sea. Only one raft capable of holding twenty-five men was inflated fifty crewmen tried to climb aboard. The fire burned through seals in the hull, and water gushed into the sixth and seventh compartments. Commander Vanin, the sub’s main officer, decided to let the fire in these compartments burn itself out, as he saw no possibility of stopping them. Though poisoned crewmen were carried up to the deck, two men died immediately. Crewmen on the sub fought the fire, passing out from air saturated with carbon monoxide that was fed through their gas masks. Soviet rescue ships started out towards the sub from a navy base near Murmansk, some thirteen hours away from the rescue party. Navy headquarters deliberated over rescue plans, causing what may have been a fatal delay. The Komsomolets surfaced and sent an SOS to the Soviet military communications network. At the same time, a power surge swept through the electrical system, sparking new fires throughout the submarine. The fire spread to the sixth compartment, killing an officer. At approximately 11:00 am, a short circuit sparked a fire in the seventh compartment. The sub’s titanium double hull enabled it to dive to 3,000 feet three times deeper than conventional steel-hulled subs.īy April 7, 1989, the Komsomolets had been at sea tracking US subs for 39 days. The Komsomolets was built and based near Murmansk and was designed, according to a Soviet Navy officer, to test technologies, materials, and operations at great depths. The Sinking of the Komsomoletsīy tonnage and speed, the Komsomolets is within the range of the latest US attack submarines of the Los Angeles-class. If the recent history of the Soviet nuclear industry is any guide, it will not be the last. The sinking of the Komsomolets is only one in a series of accidents involving the Soviet fleet of nuclear-powered submarines and ships. The submarine sank to a depth of 5,600 feet, 125 miles off the northern coast of Norway, and forty-two out of a crew of sixty-nine perished. On April 7, 1989, a fire broke out aboard the nuclear-powered submarine Komsomolets, and despite efforts of the crew, burned out of control.
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