NEWS: Russian Mini Sub Stranded On Ocean Floor - Japanese To Rescue

The Scorpio from the U.K. should arrive a few hours before the one from the U.S.

Latest from Russia is that they will begin the actual rescue attempt after midnight. Link:

www.interfax.ru...

Originally posted by Astronomer68
Latest from Russia is that they will begin the actual rescue attempt after midnight. Link:

www.interfax.ru...

I think they have started that attempt a long time ago. This article is from "Aug 5 2005 7:24PM" (whatever that means in GMT time) and where I am right now (GMT+1) it is now Aug 6 2005 4:00AM...

www.abc.net.au...
Anchors and antennas are hindering efforts to drag a Russian submarine that is caught in fishing nets to a shallower location.

The Russia's Navy is racing against the clock to rescue seven crew members trapped 190 metres below the surface before their air runs out.

The mini-submarine, itself a rescue vessel, ran into trouble on Thursday when its propeller got entangled in fishing nets.

An antenna also got hooked as the sub participated in a military exercise off the Kamchatka peninsula on Russia's Pacific Coast.

An Antenna? Omega Project/Earth Grid/Haarp/Echelon?????? Was the antenna on the sub or on the ocean floor

*Edit seems like it was on the sub

[edit on 5-8-2005 by Mayet]

* Edit again ...maybe not

Initially the Navy said the submarine got caught up in fishing nets but later officials told local news agencies that the submarine had also snagged an antenna of some kind.

[edit on 5-8-2005 by Mayet]

Latest I have run across on this incident:

The flight from Naval Air Station North Island near San Diego to Petropavlovsk on Russia's eastern coast was expected to take 10 to 12 hours. The Scorpios and their equipment will then have to be loaded aboard a vessel and taken to the stricken mini-sub's location.

"We're the 911 force for submarine rescue," said Navy Capt. Russell Ervin, a reserve with Deep Submergence Unit 5. "In our business, minutes count."

The British Scorpio, being carried on a Royal Air Force C-17 transport plane, was expected to arrive at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at about 7 p.m. Saturday local time, or 2 a.m. EDT. The U.S. plane was expected to land about 10:30 p.m. local time, or 5:30 a.m. EDT.

Oxygen Dwindling for Seven in Russian Sub

Everything I have been reading on this, it appears that the 'why' and 'how' as to the sub be stricken has taken a back seat to just solely rescuing the subs crewmen. I think that the 'why' and 'how' will come after.




seekerof

Originally posted by Mayet
[An Antenna? Omega Project/Earth Grid/Haarp/Echelon?????? Was the antenna on the sub or on the ocean floor

More likely a Russian version of SOSUS or an underwater listening array for detection of submarines. Rember that the USN did and still plays games with the Russian fleet.

Russians say first attempts at rescue failed. Link:

www.eians.com...

The Washington Post had this article about the rescue attempts: Link:

www.washingtonpost.com...

And here is the latest I have from BBC:

news.bbc.co.uk...

And the latest from TASS news:

www.itar-tass.com...
www.itar-tass.com...

[edit on 6-8-2005 by Astronomer68]

I think the only hope is for the American and/or British teams to reach them in time. Our sub rescue teams were mobilized with great speed actually. Unfortunately this is not a large nuclear sub that has large resources aboard that can wait while rescue team arrives. I doubt we're really geared towards rescuing such a small sub so far away.

My prayers are with the crew, and I hope they do make it.

The picture I'm getting of what happened is that the mini-sub became entangled in a cast off fishing net. The crew thought they could power out of it, but attempts to do so only got them entangled tighter. Apparently the fishing net was cast off originally because it had become entangled in the Soviet version of a SOSUS array, which is anchored to the seafloor with a 60 ton anchor. When the mini-sub crew couldn't power out of the net--and not knowing it was also tethered to the underwater sonar array--they blew all ballast in an attempt to rise to the surface, or free themselves. Their attempt was unsuccessful and in the process of that attempt they used up a significant portion of their available air supply. Thus the confusion by the Russian Navy about how much air was aboard.

Next, the surface ships rigged drag-nets to try to snag the sub or the fishing net that it was entangled in--apparently they still did not know at that time they were also tethered to the sonar array. Their attempt to snag the sub was successful and they then attempted to raise and/or drag the mini-sub towards shallower water; however, they only managed to move the sub about 200 feet up the seabed. This is when they finally realized they were also hooked onto the sonar array.

Since then, the Soviet Navy has tried to pull cutters through the fishing net and perhaps cut the sonar array anchor tether--neither effort was fruitful. Currently, they are just waiting for additional help to arrive and hoping the approaching Typhoon doesn't come closer to the rescue area.

It also appears they were probably operating in that area to begin with in order to inspect the sonar array--not conducting an exercise. In all likelihood the original encounter of the fishing net and the sonar array triggered a report to higher authority and the mini-sub was sent to investigate. This last bit is an educated guess on my part as I have no way of knowing what really went down; however, it does look like the mini-sub crew screwed up by getting entangled to begin with.

[edit on 6-8-2005 by Astronomer68]

New news:

www.cbsnews.com...

Pardon me for not trusting the Russians, but why did they so quickly ask for help from the US when the incident was so close to the Kamchatka peninsula and their own bases?

My take on it was that it was to test our ability to respond since they know how much Americans love to be the great white knights? It tells them something militarily about our abilities to organize and mobilize to their shores under a seemingly peaceful rescue. I think there are other motives being played out here. Right at a time when Russia and China are becoming more partners in their mutual goal of dominating the world. This seems really fishy to me.

Do we know if there was an actual submarine incident? Or do we take only the word of the Russians? If there was, it would be interesting to know if the crew of the Russian sub knew they were bait before their mission?

Again, pardon me, Russian and Chinese fans, but I don't trust those two countries as far as I can throw them.

Originally posted by managerie
Pardon me for not trusting the Russians, but why did they so quickly ask for help from the US when the incident was so close to the Kamchatka peninsula and their own bases?

The Russians asked for the international help that they did directly because of the flak that Putin caught over the Kursk incident in not asking for international assistance until it was beyond too late.

It is not that the Russians do no have the capabilities to rescue these trapped sailors, but that they do not have the material and hardware in place to get there to do so.




seekerof

managerie I think the Russians were quicker to ask for help because of the last submarine incident, the Kursk sinking in the Barents Sea, where they waited to long for any help to have a chance. They took a beating in the world's press for that incident and I don't think they want that to happen again.

Your skepticism is warranted when it comes to Russia, but in this particular case I think they are mostly telling the truth.

Sorry Seekerof, I didn't know you were answering the same question at about the same time.

News update:

www.channel4.com...

More news on the Yanks & Brits:

today.reuters.com...< br />
And here's the latest from Interfax:

www.interfax.ru...

[edit on 6-8-2005 by Astronomer68]

The ameicans are also helping with some kind of modern tecniques...

Here's the latest I have from BBC news--it is essentially just a repeat of everyone else:

www.theglobeandmail.com...

Here is CNN's latest take on the mini-sub:

www.cnn.com...

[edit on 6-8-2005 by Astronomer68]

A British rescue team has arrived in eastern Siberia to assist in an urgent operation to save the crew of a stranded Russian mini-submarine.

Seven crew members are trapped in the vessel, which is stuck on the seabed 200 metres below the surface off Russia's Pacific coast.

An American rescue team is also on the way.

It is expected to take several hours to transport the unmanned British craft and its operators to the rescue site before it can begin work.

Rescuers are racing against time amid conflicting reports about how much oxygen the seven crewmen have left.

In the latest estimate, Vice Admiral Vladimir Pepelyaev told Russian NTV television on Saturday that "there is enough to last just over 24 hours".

The Russians say their first attempt to hook a cable to the vessel and drag it to safety has failed.

The plan was to drag the vessel to shallower water, where divers could reach it and cut it free.

But the submarine is caught on an underwater antenna, as well as fishing nets, which is complicating the rescue.

The head of Russia's Pacific Fleet originally said the submarine had been moved around 60 metres, but he has now back-tracked and claims work is proceeding too slowly.

www.abc.net.au...

I still think the Antenna story bears watching

Here is YAHOO's latest news article -- looks like a filler piece until some real news comes out of there:

news.yahoo.com...;_ylt=AvqjySPNxeSRCVRCk24Wpwd34T0D;_ylu=X3o'___'BiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Mayet - I'm not sure what your getting at about watching the antenna story. The thing the sub & fishing net are entangled with is an underwater sonar listening station very similar to one of the U.S. SOSUS arrays. Essentially these things are passive hydrophone arrays designed to listen to many frequencies at once. They are anchored to the ocean floor by two cable tethers (so they don't move about much) and linked back to the land by underwater communications cable. The microphones are very sensitive and can hear submarines and other things from a great distance. Each array is composed of more than one microphone cluster so the direction and time of arrival of each acoustic signal can be measured. That way, the distance and direction to each signal can be plotted very accurately.

The Soviets have many such arrays scattered around the ocean floor off the Kamchatka Penninsula because that area is literally loaded with many extremely sensitive electronic monitoring stations as well as anti-ballistic missile radars, etc. and a number of Soviet Air Force bases to defend them.
There was trouble there back in the 70's and 80's because the U.S. was constantly sending electronic reconnaissance aircraft into the area to try to determine exactly what the Soviet sensor capabilities were.