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Britain Joins Russian Submarine Rescue Operation
Britain on Wednesday sent a submarine and a team of 27 rescuers to help save the 118 Russian sailors trapped in a submarine on the bed of the Barents Sea.
A British aircraft carrying the mini-submarine and a team of 27 rescuers arrived at Trondheim in Norway on Wednesday afternoon, enroute to Murmansk, British Defense Ministry said.
The sending of the British rescue team came after Russian authorities, in an about-turn, had finally asked Britain for help in rescuing the seamen trapped on the disabled nuclear submarine, Kursk.
The British team is to be joined by a Norway team with a diving ship and a crew of 12 to 15 divers.
Russian rescuers, frustrated by bad weather off the Arctic coast, are still trying to dock a capsule with the submarine, which has been lying on the bed of the Barents Sea since an unexplained accident last Saturday.
Russians said there had been no sign of life aboard the submarine on Wednesday, but that this did not mean that there were no survivors.
The crew was thought to have enough oxygen until Friday, although the Russian navy has now revised that estimate to nine days - until 25 August.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier called the situation "critical".
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