October 7th, 2014 , 01:21 pm
On October 6, 1986, the K-219 submarine sank near Bermuda. The cause of the disaster was an explosion in a missile silo. This post is dedicated to the memory of all submariners who died in disasters.
The pier is quiet at night.
You only know one
When the submarine is tired
Coming home from the depths
In December 1952, the diesel-electric boat S-117, preparing for exercises as part of the Pacific Fleet, crashed in the Sea of Japan. Due to a breakdown of the right diesel engine, the boat went to the designated point on one engine. A few hours later, according to the commander’s report, the malfunction was fixed, but the crew no longer contacted us. The cause and place of the submarine's death are still unknown. Presumably sank during a test dive after poor or unsuccessful repairs at sea due to faulty air and gas valves, due to which the diesel compartment was quickly filled with water and the boat was unable to surface. It should be taken into account that this was 1952. For the failure of a combat mission, both the commander of the boat and the commander of the BC-5 could be put on trial. There were 52 people on board.
On November 21, 1956, near Tallinn (Estonia), the M-200 submarine, part of the Baltic Fleet, collided with the destroyer Statny. 6 people were saved. 28 died.
Another accident in the Gulf of Tallinn occurred on September 26, 1957, when the diesel submarine M-256 from the Baltic Fleet sank after a fire started on board. Although she was initially able to be raised, she sank to the bottom four hours later. Of the 42 crew members, 7 people were saved. The A615 project boat had a propulsion system based on a diesel engine operating underwater in a closed cycle through a solid chemical absorbent to remove carbon dioxide and enrichment of the flammable mixture with liquid oxygen, which sharply increased the risk of fire. A615 boats were notorious among submariners; due to their high fire hazard, they were called “lighters.”
On January 27, 1961, the diesel submarine S-80 sank in the Barents Sea. She did not return to base from the training ground. The search operation yielded no results. Only seven years later the S-80 was found. The cause of death was the flow of water through the valve of the RDP (a retractable device of a submarine for supplying air to diesel engines in the periscope position of the submarine) into its diesel compartment. To date, there is no clear picture of the incident. According to some reports, the boat tried to evade the ramming attack of the Norwegian reconnaissance ship "Maryata" by urgently diving in circulation and, being heavily weighted so as not to be thrown to the surface (there was a storm), fell to depth with the shaft raised and the air flap of the RDP open. The entire crew - 68 people - died. There were two commanders on board.
On July 4, 1961, during the Arctic Circle exercise, a radiation leak occurred on the failed reactor of the K-19 submarine. The crew was able to fix the problem on their own, the boat remained afloat and was able to return to base. Eight submariners died from ultra-high doses of radiation.
On January 14, 1962, a diesel submarine B-37 from the Northern Fleet exploded at the Northern Fleet naval base in the city of Polyarny. As a result of the explosion of ammunition in the bow torpedo compartment, everyone on the pier, on the submarine and at the torpedo-technical base - 122 people - were killed. The nearby S-350 submarine was seriously damaged. The commission to investigate the emergency concluded that the cause of the tragedy was damage to the fairing of the combat charging compartment of one of the torpedoes during loading of ammunition. After which the commander of the warhead-3, in order to hide the incident on list No. 1 of emergency incidents in the fleet, tried to solder the hole, which is why the torpedo caught fire and exploded. The detonation caused the remaining combat torpedoes to explode. The commander of the boat, Captain 2nd Rank Begeba, was on the pier 100 meters from the ship, was thrown into the water by an explosion, was seriously injured, was subsequently put on trial, defended himself and was acquitted.
On August 8, 1967, in the Norwegian Sea, on the nuclear submarine K-3 Leninsky Komsomol, the first nuclear submarine of the USSR Navy, a fire occurred in compartments 1 and 2 while underwater. The fire was localized and extinguished by sealing the emergency compartments. 39 crew members were killed, 65 people were saved. The ship returned to base under its own power.
On March 8, 1968, the diesel-electric missile submarine K-129 from the Pacific Fleet was lost. The submarine carried out combat service in the area Hawaiian Islands, and since March 8 she stopped communicating. 98 people died. The boat sank at a depth of 6000 meters. The cause of the disaster is unknown. There were 100 people on board the boat, discovered in 1974 by Americans who unsuccessfully tried to raise it.
On April 12, 1970, the nuclear submarine K-8, Project 627A, from the Northern Fleet, sank in the Bay of Biscay as a result of a fire in the aft compartments. 52 people died, 73 people were saved. The boat sank at a depth of more than 4,000 meters. There were two nuclear weapons on board. Two nuclear reactors were shut down by standard means before the flooding.
On February 24, 1972, while returning to base from a combat patrol in the North Atlantic, a fire occurred in the ninth compartment on the K-19 Project 658 nuclear submarine. Later the fire spread to the eighth compartment. More than 30 ships and vessels of the Navy took part in the rescue operation. In conditions of a severe storm, it was possible to evacuate most of the K-19 crew, supply electricity to the boat and tow it to the base. 28 sailors were killed, 76 people were saved.
On June 13, 1973, in the Peter the Great Gulf (Sea of Japan), the nuclear submarine K-56, Project 675MK, collided with the research vessel Akademik Berg. The boat was on the surface heading to the base at night after performing firing exercises. At the junction of the first and second compartments, a four-meter hole was formed, into which water began to flow. To prevent the final sinking of K‑56, the commander of the boat decided to land the submarine on a coastal sandbank in the area of Cape Granitny. 27 people died.
On October 21, 1981, the diesel medium submarine S-178 Project 613B sank in the Sea of Japan as a result of a collision with the large refrigerated fishing trawler Refrigerator-13. The accident claimed the lives of 31 sailors.
On June 24, 1983, the nuclear submarine K‑429 Project 670A from the Pacific Fleet sank off the Kamchatka Peninsula. The disaster occurred when trimming the boat in an area where the depth was 35 meters, due to water entering the fourth compartment through the ship's ventilation shaft, which was mistakenly left uncovered when the boat was submerged. Some of the crew members were saved, but 16 people had previously died as a result of the explosion batteries and the struggle for survivability. If the boat had reached great depths, it would definitely have perished along with the entire crew. The death of the ship occurred due to the criminal negligence of the command, which ordered a faulty submarine with a non-staff crew to go to sea for shooting. The crew left the sunken boat using the locking method through torpedo tubes. The commander, who completely objected to the decision of the headquarters and only went to sea under the threat of deprivation of his position and party membership card, was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison, amnestied in 1987 and soon died. The direct culprits, as always happens with us, escaped responsibility. The boat was subsequently raised, but it sank again in the factory at the pier, after which it was written off.
On October 6, 1986, in the area of Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 4000 meters, the nuclear submarine K‑219 project 667AU sank as a result of a rocket explosion in a mine. Both nuclear reactors were shut down with standard absorbers. On board were 15 ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads and two nuclear weapons. 4 people died. The remaining crew members were evacuated to the rescue ship "Agatan" that arrived from Cuba.
On April 7, 1989, in the Norwegian Sea, as a result of a fire in the tail sections at a depth of 1700 meters, the nuclear submarine K‑278 "Komsomolets" pr. 685 sank, receiving severe damage to the pressure hull. 42 people died. On board were two normally shut down nuclear reactors and two nuclear weapons.
On August 12, 2000, during naval exercises of the Northern Fleet in the Barents Sea, the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk suffered a disaster. The submarine was discovered on August 13 at a depth of 108 meters. The entire crew of 118 people died.
On August 30, 2003, the nuclear submarine K‑159 sank in the Barents Sea while being towed for dismantling. There were 10 crew members on board the boat as an escort team. 9 people died.
On November 8, 2008, during factory sea trials in the Sea of Japan, an accident occurred on the nuclear submarine Nerpa, built at the Amur Shipyard in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and not yet accepted into the Russian Navy. As a result of the unauthorized activation of the LOX (boat volumetric chemical) fire extinguishing system, freon gas began to flow into the boat compartments. 20 people died, another 21 people were hospitalized with poisoning. In total, there were 208 people on board the submarine.
Post-war losses of the USSR submarine fleet
After the end of the Second World War, a new confrontation began - the Cold War. The guns did not fire, the planes did not bomb the enemy, and the ships did not exchange artillery and missile salvoes, but this did not protect against dozens of losses human lives. And some of the biggest losses on the fronts " cold war" suffered the submarine sailors.
In the post-war period, the Soviet fleet lost nine boats, including three nuclear-powered ones. In addition, many boats were seriously damaged, and the nuclear-powered K-429 sank, but was subsequently raised and put back into operation. At first, the destruction of submarines in the USSR concerned only diesel submarines. Between 1952 and 1968, six boats died from various causes, including one at the base, and several more boats were damaged in the explosion. A total of 357 people died. Accidents also occurred on nuclear boats during this period, but all of them were accomplished without “irretrievable losses” in technology.
The sunken submarines of the USSR belonged to different fleets: two boats each from the Northern, Pacific and Baltic fleets. On April 12, 1970, the Soviet nuclear submarine K-8 was lost, on board of which there was a fire during a military campaign. It was fires that became the main problem of Soviet submariners, regularly breaking out on boats of various projects. The crew fought the fire for four days, but were unable to save the boat, and the flames “took” the lives of 52 crew members.
On next year It's a miracle she didn't die nuclear boat K-56, which received a hole as a result of a collision with the scientific vessel Akademik Berg. The accident cost the lives of 27 sailors who battened down the compartment and saved the lives of others. This was followed by a long period of calm. Largest quantity The number of sunken submarines in the USSR dates back to the 1980s, marked by glasnost and perestroika. And if the death of the diesel boat S-178 on October 21, 1981 did not cause a resonance (collision with a cargo ship), then the death of the nuclear-powered K-219 in October 1986 had great publicity. For three days in the Sargasso Sea, the crew fought the fire, but the boat could not be saved. Fortunately, only four people died.
In the interval between the two accidents, on June 24, 1983, the K-429, which went out for testing after repairs, sank. As a result, the boat took on water during the dive, and incorrect actions by the crew led to the boat sinking to the bottom. 104 people made it to the surface, and another 16 died. The boat was later raised and returned to service.
But the most famous death of a submarine in the USSR occurred on April 7, 1989, when, as a result of a fire and subsequent flooding, the newest submarine “Komsomolets”, returning from combat duty, sank. 42 sailors were killed in the accident. It is worth noting that the death of submarines in the USSR occurred much more often than in the United States, which lost only two of its nuclear submarines.
There were also losses in Russian time. And if the K-159 towed for scrapping cannot be considered a full-fledged combat boat, then the death on August 12, 2000 of the Project 945A nuclear submarine cruiser Kursk was a real tragedy, which led to the death of 118 submariners.
Finally, we note that sunken Soviet submarines are located in all parts of the world, from their native shores to the Sargasso Sea, Hawaii and the Bay of Biscay, indicating the location of the Cold War front line.
Water and cold. Darkness.
And somewhere above there was the sound of metal.
I don’t have the strength to say: we are here, here...
Hope is gone, I'm tired of waiting.
The bottomless ocean reliably keeps its secrets. Somewhere out there, under the dark arches of the waves, lie the wreckage of thousands of ships, each of which has its own unique fate and tragic death.
In 1963, the thickness of sea water crushed the most modern American submarine "Thresher". Half a century ago, this was hard to believe - the invincible Poseidon, who drew strength from the flames of a nuclear reactor and was able to circumnavigate the globe without a single ascent, turned out to be weak as a worm before the onslaught of the merciless elements.
“We have a positive increasing angle... We are trying to blow through... 900... north” - the last message from the Thresher is unable to convey all the horror that the dying submariners experienced. Who could have imagined that a two-day test voyage accompanied by the rescue tug Skylark could end in such a disaster?
The cause of the Thrasher's death remains a mystery. The main hypothesis: when diving to the maximum depth, water entered the durable hull of the boat - the reactor was automatically shut down, and the submarine, unable to move, fell into the abyss, taking with it 129 human lives.
Rudder blade USS Tresher (SSN-593)
Soon terrible story was continued - the Americans lost another nuclear-powered ship with its crew: in 1968 it disappeared without a trace in the Atlantic multi-purpose nuclear submarine "Scorpion".
Unlike the Thrasher, with which sound underwater communication was maintained until the last second, the death of the Scorpion was complicated by the lack of any clear idea of the coordinates of the disaster site. Unsuccessful searches continued for five months until the Yankees deciphered data from deep-sea stations of the SOSUS system (a network of hydrophone buoys of the US Navy for tracking Soviet submarines) - on the records dated May 22, 1968, a loud bang was discovered, similar to the destruction of the durable hull of a submarine. Next, using the triangulation method, the approximate location of the lost boat was restored.
Wreck of USS Scorpion (SSN-589). Visible deformations from the monstrous water pressure (30 tons/sq. meter)
The wreckage of the Scorpion was discovered at a depth of 3000 meters in the middle of Atlantic Ocean, 740 km southwest of the Azores. The official version connects the death of the boat with the detonation of torpedo ammunition (almost like the Kursk!). There is a more exotic legend, according to which the Scorpion was sunk by the Russians in retaliation for the death of the K-129.
The mystery of the death of the Scorpion still haunts the minds of sailors - in November 2012, the Organization of Veteran Submariners of the US Navy proposed launching a new investigation to establish the truth about the death of the American boat.
Less than 48 hours had passed since the wreckage of the American Scorpio sank to the seabed, and a new tragedy occurred in the ocean. On experimental nuclear submarine K-27 The Soviet Navy's reactor with liquid metal coolant went out of control. The nightmare unit, in whose veins molten lead was boiling, “contaminated” all the compartments with radioactive emissions, the crew received terrible doses of radiation, 9 submariners died from acute radiation sickness. Despite the severe radiation accident, Soviet sailors managed to bring the boat to the base in Gremikha.
K-27 turned into an ineffective heap of metal with positive buoyancy, emitting deadly gamma rays. The decision on the future fate of the unique ship hung in the air; finally, in 1981, it was decided to sink the damaged submarine in one of the bays on Novaya Zemlya. As a keepsake for posterity. Maybe they will find a way to safely dispose of the floating Fukushima?
But long before the “last dive” of K-27, the group of nuclear submarines at the bottom of the Atlantic was replenished submarine K-8. One of the first-born of the nuclear fleet, the third nuclear submarine in the ranks of the USSR Navy, which sank during a fire in the Bay of Biscay on April 12, 1970. For 80 hours there was a struggle for the survivability of the ship, during which time the sailors managed to shut down the reactors and evacuate part of the crew on board the approaching Bulgarian ship.
The death of K-8 and 52 submariners became the first official loss of the Soviet nuclear fleet. Currently, the wreckage of the nuclear-powered ship rests at a depth of 4,680 meters, 250 miles off the coast of Spain.
In the 1980s, the USSR Navy lost a couple more nuclear submarines in combat campaigns - a missile submarine cruiser strategic purpose K-219 and the unique “titanium” submarine K-278 “Komsomolets”.
K-219 with a torn missile silo
Most dangerous situation developed around the K-219 - on board the submarine, in addition to two nuclear reactors, there were 15 R-21 submarine-launched ballistic missiles* with 45 thermonuclear warheads. On October 3, 1986, missile silo No. 6 depressurized, which led to the explosion of a ballistic missile. The crippled ship demonstrated fantastic survivability, managing to emerge from a depth of 350 meters, with damage to the pressure hull and a flooded fourth (missile) compartment.
* the project assumed a total of 16 SLBMs, but in 1973 a similar incident already occurred on the K-219 - the explosion of a liquid-propellant rocket. As a result, the “unlucky” boat remained in service, but lost launch shaft No. 15.
Three days after the rocket explosion, the heavily armed nuclear-powered submarine sank in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 5 kilometers. The disaster killed 8 people. It happened on October 6, 1986
Three years later, on April 7, 1989, another Soviet submarine, the K-278 Komsomolets, sank to the bottom of the Norwegian Sea. An unsurpassed ship with a titanium hull, capable of diving to depths of over 1000 meters.
K-278 "Komsomolets" at the bottom of the Norwegian Sea. The photographs were taken by the Mir deep-sea submersible.
Alas, no exorbitant performance characteristics saved the Komsomolets - the submarine became a victim of a banal fire, complicated by the lack of clear ideas about the tactics of fighting for survivability on kingless boats. In the burning compartments and ice water 42 sailors were killed. The nuclear submarine sank at a depth of 1,858 meters, becoming the subject of a furious debate between shipbuilders and sailors in a bid to find the “culprit”.
New times have brought new problems. The orgy of the “free market”, multiplied by “limited funding”, the destruction of the fleet supply system and the mass dismissal of experienced submariners inevitably led to disaster. And she didn’t keep her waiting.
August 12, 2000 no contact Nuclear submarine K-141 "Kursk". The official cause of the tragedy is the spontaneous explosion of a “long” torpedo. Unofficial version - from the nightmarish heresy in the style of "Submarine in muddy water"from the French director Jean Michel Carré to quite plausible hypotheses about a collision with the aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov or a torpedo fired from the American submarine Toledo (the motive is unclear).
The nuclear submarine cruiser is an “aircraft carrier killer” with a displacement of 24 thousand tons. The depth where the submarine sank was 108 meters, 118 people were locked in the “steel coffin”...
The epic with the unsuccessful operation to rescue the crew from the Kursk lying on the ground shocked the whole of Russia. We all remember the smiling face of another scoundrel with admiral’s shoulder straps smiling on TV: “The situation is under control. Contact has been established with the crew, and air supply has been provided to the emergency boat.”
Then there was an operation to raise the Kursk. The first compartment was sawn off (for what??), a letter from Captain Kolesnikov was found... was there a second page? Someday we will know the truth about those events. And, for sure, we will be very surprised at our naivety.
On August 30, 2003, another tragedy occurred, hidden in the gray twilight of naval everyday life - it sank while being towed for cutting. old nuclear submarine K-159. The reason is loss of buoyancy due to bad technical condition boats. It still lies at a depth of 170 meters near the island of Kildin, on the approach to Murmansk.
The question of lifting and disposing of this radioactive pile of metal is periodically raised, but so far the matter has not moved beyond words.
In total, today the wreckage of seven nuclear submarines lies on the bottom of the World Ocean:
Two American: “Thrasher” and “Scorpio”
Five Soviet: K-8, K-27, K-219, K-278 and K-159.
However, this is far from full list. In the history of the Russian Navy, there are a number of other incidents that were not reported by TASS, in each of which nuclear submarines were lost.
For example, on August 20, 1980, a serious accident occurred in the Philippine Sea - 14 sailors died fighting a fire on board the K-122. The crew was able to save their nuclear submarine and bring the burnt boat in tow to their home base. Unfortunately, the damage received was such that restoring the boat was deemed impractical. After 15 years of storage, K-122 was disposed of at the Zvezda Shipyard.
Another severe incident, known as the “radiation accident in Chazhma Bay,” occurred in 1985 at Far East. During the process of recharging the reactor of the nuclear submarine K-431, the floating crane swayed on the wave and “teared out” the control grids from the submarine’s reactor. The reactor turned on and instantly reached an extreme operating mode, turning into a “dirty atomic bomb", so-called "fizzy" In a bright flash, 11 officers standing nearby disappeared. According to eyewitnesses, the 12-ton reactor cover flew up a couple of hundred meters and then fell again on the boat, almost cutting it in half. The outbreak of a fire and emissions of radioactive dust finally turned the K-431 and the nearby nuclear submarine K-42 into unsuitable floating coffins. Both damaged nuclear submarines were scrapped.
When it comes to accidents on nuclear submarines, one cannot fail to mention the K-19, which received the telling nickname “Hiroshima” in the navy. The boat became a source of water at least four times serious problems. The first combat campaign and the reactor accident on July 3, 1961 are especially memorable. K-19 was heroically saved, but the episode with the reactor almost cost the life of the first Soviet missile carrier.
After reviewing the list dead submarines, the average person may have a vile belief: Russians do not know how to control ships. The accusation is serious. The Yankees lost only two nuclear submarines - Thresher and Scorpion. At the same time, the domestic fleet lost almost a dozen nuclear submarines, not counting diesel-electric submarines (the Yankees have not built diesel-electric boats since the 1950s). How to explain this paradox? The fact that the nuclear-powered ships of the USSR Navy were controlled by crooked Russian Mongols?
Something tells me that there is another explanation for the paradox. Let's try to find it together.
It is worth noting that an attempt to “blame” all failures on the difference in the number of nuclear submarines in the compositions of the USSR Navy and the US Navy is obviously useless. In total, during the existence of the nuclear submarine fleet, about 250 submarines passed through the hands of our sailors (from K-3 to the modern Borey), while the Americans had slightly fewer of them - ≈ 200 units. However, the Yankees had nuclear-powered ships earlier and were operated two to three times more intensively (just look at the operational stress coefficient of SSBNs: 0.17 - 0.24 for ours and 0.5 - 0.6 for American missile carriers). Obviously, the whole point is not the number of boats... But then what?
Much depends on the calculation method. As the old joke goes: “It doesn’t matter how you did it, the main thing is how you calculated it.” A thick trail of fatal accidents and emergencies stretches through the entire history of the nuclear fleet, regardless of the submarine’s flag.
On February 9, 2001, the US Navy multi-purpose nuclear submarine Greenville rammed the Japanese fishing schooner Ehime Maru. Nine Japanese fishermen were killed, and the US Navy submarine fled the scene without providing any assistance to those in distress.
Nonsense! - the Yankees will answer. Navigation incidents are everyday life in any fleet. In the summer of 1973, the Soviet nuclear submarine K-56 collided with the scientific vessel Akademik Berg. 27 sailors died.
But the Russians' boats sank right at the pier! Here you are:
On September 13, 1985, K-429 lay down on the ground at the pier in Krasheninnikov Bay.
So what?! - our sailors may object. The Yankees had the same case:
May 15, 1969 nuclear submarine The USS Guitarro sank right next to the quay wall. The reason is simple negligence.
USS Guitarro (SSN-655) lay down to rest at the pier
Americans will scratch their heads and remember how on May 8, 1982, the central post of the nuclear submarine K-123 (“underwater fighter” of the 705th project, a reactor with liquid liquid fuel) received an original report: “I see silvery metal spreading across the deck.” The first circuit of the reactor ruptured, the radioactive alloy of lead and bismuth “stained” the boat so much that it took 10 years to clean up K-123. Fortunately, none of the sailors died then.
The Russians will only smile sadly and tactfully hint to the Americans how the USS Dace (SSN-607) accidentally “splashed” two tons of radioactive liquid from the primary circuit into the Thames (a river in the USA), “dirting” the entire Groton naval base.
Stop!
We won't achieve anything this way. There is no point in denigrating each other and remembering ugly moments from history.
It is clear that a huge fleet of hundreds of ships serves as rich soil for various emergencies - every day there is smoke somewhere, something falls, explodes or lands on rocks.
The true indicator is major accidents that lead to the loss of ships. “Thresher”, “Scorpion”,... Are there any other cases where nuclear-powered ships of the US Navy received heavy damage during military campaigns and were forever excluded from the fleet?
Yes, such cases have happened.
USS San Francisco (SSN-711) smashed to pieces. Consequences of a collision with an underwater rock at 30 knots
In 1986, the US Navy strategic missile carrier Nathaniel Greene crashed on rocks in the Irish Sea. The damage to the hull, rudders and ballast tanks was so great that the boat had to be scrapped.
February 11, 1992. Barencevo sea. Multipurpose nuclear submarine " Baton Rouge collided with the Russian titanium Barracuda. The boats collided successfully - repairs on the B-276 took six months, and the story of the USS Baton Rouge (SSN-689) turned out to be much sadder. Clash with the Russian titanium boat led to the appearance of stresses and microcracks in the durable hull of the submarine. "Baton Rouge" hobbled to the base and soon ceased to exist.
"Baton Rouge" goes to the nails
It's not fair! – the attentive reader will notice. The Americans had purely navigational errors; there were practically no accidents on US Navy ships with damage to the reactor core. In the Russian Navy, everything is different: compartments are burning, molten coolant is gushing onto the deck. On the face design mistakes and improper operation of equipment.
And it is true. The domestic submarine fleet has exchanged reliability for exorbitant specifications boats. The design of the submarines of the USSR Navy has always been different high degree novelty and lots of innovative solutions. Testing of new technologies was often carried out directly in combat campaigns. The fastest (K-222), deepest (K-278), largest (project 941 “Shark”) and most secretive boat (project 945A “Condor”) were created in our country. And if there is nothing to blame “Condor” and “Akula” for, then the operation of the other “record holders” was regularly accompanied by major technical problems.
Was this the right decision: immersion depth in exchange for reliability? We have no right to answer this question. History does not know the subjunctive mood, the only thing I wanted to convey to the reader: the high accident rate on Soviet submarines is not the miscalculations of the designers or the mistakes of the crews. Often it was inevitable. High price paid for unique characteristics submarines.
Project 941 strategic missile submarine
Memorial to fallen submariners, Murmansk
Idea combat use the idea of an underwater vessel was first proposed by Leonardo da Vinci. He subsequently destroyed his project because he feared the devastating consequences of submarine warfare. The idea of using a submarine in combat was popularized in Jules Verne's novel 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, written in 1870. The novel describes the Nautilus submarine, which rams and destroys surface ships.
Although the most important tactical property and advantage of a submarine is stealth, until 1944 all submarines spent most of their time on the surface and were essentially submersible boats - surface ships.
Today we will remember the largest submarine disasters, because sometimes these metal monsters go under water forever...
US Navy submarine SS-109 (1927)
40 people died when the US submarine SS-109 (USS S-4) sank after it was rammed American ship Coast Guard off Cape Cod.
An amazing fact: the submarine returned to service a year after this accident and served actively until its decommissioning in 1936.
Soviet submarine S-117 "Pike", 1952
"Shch-117" is a Soviet diesel-electric torpedo submarine from the Second World War, belongs to the V-bis series of the Shch - "Pike" project. On June 10, 1949, renamed S-117.
Shch-117, 1930s:
By the early fifties, the S-117 was no longer a new ship, but it successfully performed the tasks assigned to it. In December 1952, in the Sea of Japan, the Pike was supposed to take part in exercises. On the way to the maneuver area, its commander reported that due to a breakdown of the right diesel engine, the submarine was going to the designated point on one engine. A few hours later he reported that the problem had been fixed. Bigger boat didn't get in touch.
The exact cause and place of death of the submarine are unknown. It was as if she had disappeared.
There were 52 crew members on board the boat, including 12 officers. Searches for the C-117, carried out until 1953, yielded nothing. The cause and place of the boat's death are still unknown.
US Navy submarine USS Thrasher, 1963
An American submarine sank during a training exercise off the Cape Cod Peninsula off the coast of Massachusetts, killing 129 crew members.
Mechanical failure caused the boat to quickly sink and explode. According to the conclusions made by expert Bruce Rule, who examined the death of the boat, the final destruction of the Thresher’s hull occurred at a depth of 732 m and took no more than 0.1 seconds. Its wreckage was discovered at a depth of more than 2,500 meters. The boat's hull split into six main parts - the bow section, the sonar dome, the wheelhouse, the tail section, the engine room, and the command compartment, all located within a radius of 300 meters.
Photo of the Thrasher's vertical rudder lying on the bottom:
The sinking of the Soviet submarine K-129, 1968
The diesel submarine of the USSR Navy K-129, which, according to various sources, carried from 96 to 98 crew members, went on combat duty in the North Pacific Ocean in February 1968.
On March 8, 1968, the diesel-electric missile submarine K-129 from the Pacific Fleet, equipped with nuclear warheads, was lost. The submarine carried out combat service in the Hawaiian Islands, and since March 8 it has stopped communicating. According to various sources, there were from 96 to 98 crew members on board the K-129, all of them died.
The cause of the disaster is unknown. Regarding this accident there is whole line theories, including a collision with a certain American ship, but Washington consistently denied this, and, according to the official report of the US Navy, the death was to blame Soviet submarine there was a "tragic explosion on board". Subsequently, the Americans discovered K-129 and recovered it in 1974.
The Soviet side organized a search for the missing submarine, which did not bring any results. Subsequently, K-129 was discovered by the Americans, who organized its recovery.
Submarine K-129 at the bottom:
During the rise, the submarine broke in two, but several of its compartments were delivered to one of the US Navy bases. During their examination, the bodies of six Soviet submariners were discovered. The Americans gave military honors to the dead and buried the dead submariners at sea.
American USS Scorpion (SSN-589), 1968
The keel of the US Navy ship took place on August 20, 1958. The boat sank on May 21, 1968, 740 km southwest of the Azores at a depth of 3,000 meters, 5 days before returning to base in Norfolk. 99 people died.
They searched for the sunken boat for 5 months; more than 60 ships and vessels, and up to 30 aircraft were involved in the search. A week after the search began, a German submarine, sunk during the Second World War, was discovered 100 miles from Norfolk. Search for a long time were in vain.
Soon the boat was found at a depth of 3047 meters and photographed by the Mizar vessel. The cause of the ship's death has not yet been established; the most likely version is a torpedo explosion. But there are other versions...
For almost 40 years, by mutual agreement, the United States and Russia have been carefully concealing the fact of the destruction of the American nuclear submarine Scorpion by a combat torpedo fired by a Soviet submarine, says the author of the new investigative book “Scorpion Down” published in the United States, military journalist Ed Offley.
Offley claims that the destruction of the Scorpion was the “revenge” of Soviet submariners, who believed that the United States was involved in the death of the Soviet submarine K-129, which sank to the bottom after an explosion on board with the entire crew of 98 people in Pacific Ocean in March 1968.
The tragedies of 1968 were part of an underwater “reconnaissance war,” many of the details of which are still classified, the author of the book believes.
Fragment of a boat hull. Visible deformations from excessive pressure:
Soviet submarine K-8, 1970
The Soviet nuclear submarine K-8 of Project 627A “Kit” joined the Northern Fleet on August 31, 1960.
The submarine, which was on combat duty in the Mediterranean Sea, was sent to the North Atlantic region to participate in the largest exercise in the history of the Soviet Navy, Ocean-70, in which the forces of all USSR fleets participated. Its task was to designate the “enemy’s” submarine forces breaking through to the shores of the Soviet Union. The start of the exercises was planned for April 14, the end - for the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin - April 22, 1970.
The last hours of the life of K-8 and part of her crew:
The nuclear submarine K-8 was lost on April 12, 1970 in the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean as a result of a severe fire, which led to the loss of buoyancy and longitudinal stability. The submarine sank at a depth of 4680 meters, 490 km northwest of Spain. 52 crew members were killed. While dying, they managed to shut down the nuclear reactors.
Monument to the K-8 crew:
The death of the K-8 and 52 crew members was the first loss of the Soviet nuclear fleet.
Nuclear submarine K-278 "Komsomolets", 1989
The Soviet 3rd generation nuclear submarine K-278 Komsomolets was the only submarine of Project 685 Plavnik. The boat holds the absolute record for diving depth among submarines - 1027 meters (August 4, 1985). The boat had six bow 533-mm torpedo tubes with a quick loader. Each TA had an autonomous pneumohydraulic firing device. Shooting could be carried out at all diving depths.
The nuclear submarine K-278 Komsomolets sank on April 7, 1989 in the Norwegian Sea. The submarine was moving at a depth of 380 meters at a speed of 8 knots. As a result of a fire in two adjacent compartments, the main ballast tank systems were destroyed, through which the boat was flooded with sea water. 42 people died, many from hypothermia.
Russian submarine "Kursk, 2000"
K-141 "Kursk" is a Russian nuclear submarine missile-carrying cruiser of Project 949A "Antey". Laid down at Sevmash in 1990 and put into operation on December 30, 1994.
The Russian submarine Kursk sank on August 12, 2000, at a depth of 108 meters during naval exercises in the Barents Sea, in waters between Norway and Russia, after two explosions occurred on board caused by a torpedo motor fuel leak.
Most of the 118 people on board were killed instantly. 23 people managed to get out into the rear compartment, but died of suffocation the next day.
In terms of the number of deaths, the accident became the second in the post-war history of the Russian submarine fleet after the explosion of ammunition on a B-37.
All stages of the operation to raise the Kursk were carried out over the course of a year. About 120 companies from 20 countries were involved in it. The cost of the work was estimated at 65 - 130 million US dollars. As a result of the operation of raising the Kursk boat, 115 bodies of dead submariners were found and buried. Three bodies were never found. A boat's potentially dangerous ammunition and two nuclear reactors were evacuated from the bottom of the Barents Sea
Chinese submarine "Min 361", 2003
The submarine was launched in 1995. Assigned to the Eastern Fleet of the People's Republic of China Navy
On April 16, 2003, a breakdown occurred during an exercise. diesel engine submarine "Min 361" when it was in Bohai Bay in the Yellow Sea off the northeastern coast of China. The breakdown led to a sharp decrease in oxygen on board and suffocation of all 70 crew members.
This was the first time China has made public the death of its diesel-electric submarine. According to Xinhua on May 2, 2003, the boat was discovered by Chinese fishermen on April 25, 2003, when they caught its periscope with nets. The submarine was later raised to the surface and towed away.
Argentine submarine "San Juan", 2017
The Argentine Navy submarine San Juan stopped communicating on November 15 while en route from the Ushuaia naval base to Mar del Plata. At the time of the last communication session, the submarine reported an accident. There were 44 people on board.
15 days after the disappearance of the submarine, the Argentine Navy announced that the operation to rescue the 44 crew members of the San Juan submarine was being stopped, but the search for the submarine itself would continue.
The captain of the missing Argentine Navy submarine San Juan promised his mother that this would be his last voyage. That's how it happened.
As for nuclear submarines, a total of 8 nuclear submarines sank from 1955 to 2017: 4 Soviet, 2 Russian, 2 American. All of them died as a result of various accidents: three - due to technical faults, two - as a result of fires, two - due to problems with weapons, the cause of the death of one boat is not reliably known.
The sunken nuclear submarines of the USSR and Russia are a topic of ongoing debate. During the Soviet and post-Soviet years, four nuclear submarines (K-8, K-219, K-278, Kursk) were lost. The sunken K-27 was sunk independently in 1982 following a radiation accident. This was done because the nuclear submarine could not be restored, and dismantling was too expensive. All these submarines were assigned to the Northern Fleet.
Nuclear submarine K-8
This sunken submarine is considered the first officially recognized loss in the Union's nuclear fleet. The cause of the ship's death on April 12, 1970 was a fire that broke out during its stay in (Atlantic). The crew struggled for a long time for the survivability of the submarine. The sailors were able to shut down the reactors. Part of the crew was evacuated on board a Bulgarian civilian ship that arrived in time, but 52 people died. This sunken submarine was one of the first nuclear-powered ships of the USSR.
Submarine K-219Project 667A was at one time one of the most modern and survivable ships of the submarine fleet. It sank on October 6, 1986 due to a powerful ballistic missile explosion in its silo. As a result of the accident, 8 people died. In addition to two reactors, the sunken submarine had at least fifteen and 45 thermonuclear warheads on board. The ship was badly damaged, but demonstrated amazing survivability. It was able to emerge from a depth of 350 meters with terrible damage to the hull and a flooded compartment. The nuclear-powered ship sank only three days later.
This sunken Project 685 submarine died on April 7, 1989 as a result of a fire that broke out during a combat mission. The ship was located near the (Norwegian Sea) in neutral waters. The crew fought for the survivability of the submarine for six hours, but after several explosions in the compartments, the submarine sank. There were 69 crew members on board. Of these, 42 people died. Komsomolets was the most modern submarine of that time. His death caused great international resonance. Before this, the sunken submarines of the USSR did not attract so much attention (partly due to the secrecy regime).
This tragedy is probably the most famous disaster involving the loss of a submarine. The "Aircraft Carrier Killer", a formidable and modern nuclear-powered cruiser, sank at a depth of 107 meters, 90 km from the coast. 132 submariners were trapped at the bottom. Efforts to rescue the crew were unsuccessful. According to the official version, the nuclear submarine sank due to the explosion of an experimental torpedo that occurred in the mine. However, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the death of the Kursk. According to other versions (unofficial), the nuclear-powered submarine sank due to a collision with the American submarine Toledo, which was nearby, or due to being hit by a torpedo fired from it. The unsuccessful rescue operation to evacuate the crew from the sunken ship was a shock for all of Russia. 132 people died on board the nuclear-powered ship.