The Kursk, with 118 crew members on board, went down after two explosions likely to be caused by a peroxide leak in a faulty test torpedo. In August 2000, the Russian Navy was conducting exercises in the Barents Sea, a body of water bordering the country’s northwest corner. But even that could not save the crew of the fateful Russian nuclear submarine Kursk. Hence, proximity to shore or other warships makes locating a submerged vessel easier and faster. So, in case of emergency, the crew is mostly on its own. On sensitive missions, even this contact is not made. When submarines go out into the sea, they do a “Check” report, i.e., every 24 hours, they send out just one-word “check.” The frequency of making contact can be pre-decided. Even their crew are trained to walk silently without making any sound, particularly any metal clanging, as sound travels faster in water, and loud noises will give away the submarine’s location. But it is extremely unlikely to be rescued,” opined Indian Navy Captain Anurag Bisen. Submarine rescues have happened at less than 600 meters of depth. But, when you are stricken or lost, or the vessel has been damaged, you pretty much resign to fate. “You are trained for isolation and remaining without contact.

The crew changes their clock by 12 hours – they sleep during the day and maintain vigil during the night. It is during this time it is most susceptible to detection or an attack, so the whole crew has to be awake.

The diesel submarines, which have to surface once every 24 hours, come to the surface to replenish oxygen during the night. The crew is working in an altered environment. The “isolation and prolonged periods of being without contact” are not meant for the faint-hearted. The Submarines are mostly voluntary arms in most of the world’s navies. Most of its 118-strong crew died instantly, but 23 men fled to a rear compartment before they later died, mainly of suffocation. In 2000, the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk suffered internal explosions and sank during maneuvers in the Barents Sea. Its wreckage was found almost a year later at a depth of 800 meters. Before that, in November 2017, an Argentine submarine went missing with 44 crew members in the South Atlantic. Most recently, in 2021, an Indonesian submarine KRI Nanggala 402, went missing with a crew of 53 on board. All Rights Reserved.As time and oxygen are both running out, it is more likely that the fate of the occupants of the Titan submersible is going to be eerily similar to those onboard Titanic, whose wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean they were en route to.įormer submariners, while holding on to hope, paint a grim picture of the rescue and point out how the crew of the ill-fated submarines often sink with the vessel as it is difficult to mount a timely rescue. The government plans to raisthe submarine to the surface later this year. Most Russian and foreign experts have agreed that a misfiring torpedo was the most likely cause of the disaster. Izvestia quoted Igor Kurdin, who leads a group of retired submariners, saying that Spassky had told him that the first blast indeed came from a misfiring torpedo.Īfter the Kursk slammed onto the seabed, four combat torpedoes detonated, instantly killing most of the crew, Kurdin quoted Spassky as saying. Igor Spassky, the head of the Rubin design bureau that designed the Kursk, has said that he knew what caused the disaster but refused to name the reason. When the note was found, Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who was in charge of the Kursk salvage operation, described the note as saying that the crew was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning from the fire and the rise in pressure.

Kursk submarine disaster bodies