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Rescue Efforts Continue for Russian Sub Despite Failures
Intensive efforts continued Friday in the Barents Sea to save 118 crew aboard Russia's Kursk nuclear submarine that went down to the seabed last Saturday.
All previous attempts to dock a rescue capsule to the sub have failed and a seventh attempt was under way early Friday, the Interfax news agency reported, quoting Russian Northern Fleet spokesman Igor Babenko.
The failures were blamed on a strong undercurrent and poor visibility.
Babenko said four docking attempts were made on Thursday but none succeeded.
Docking attempts will continue until the arrival of foreign rescuers expected Saturday evening and Sunday. Two Norwegian ships are heading for the disaster area one the British LR5 submarine rescue craft and the other a group of Norwegian deep-sea divers.
The weather forecasting service says the weather is relatively good on the coast with gushes of wind not exceeding 36 km/h and visibility of 1-2 kilometers in some places marred by fog. The air temperature is 6-11 degrees Centigrade, and the temperature of seawater at the depth of 100 meters, where the submarine is lying, 3 degrees.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who leads a government commission probing the incident, said Thursday night that collision with a heavy object caused the Kursk nuclear submarine to sink to the bottom of the Barents Sea.
He said the collision resulted in "a dreadful hole" in the sub and that the disaster "was developing within two minutes," the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The sub fell to the seabed from a depth of 20 meters. When it struck the sea floor, the submarine received a second blow, Klebanov said.
The Kursk was commissioned for the Russian Navy in 1995. It has a displacement of 14,700-23,860 tons and can dive to depths of up to 500 meters. The submarine is armed with torpedoes and "Granite" cruise missiles. The vessel can operate autonomously for up to 120 days, the Interfax news agency reported.
More than 20 ships and other vessels are participating in the rescue operation.
There have had no banging signals from inside the submarine from Wednesday, but officials said the crew might be lying low to conserve oxygen and strength.
Authorities said earlier that the oxygen availability aboard the Kursk could last until Friday, but they later revised that prediction, saying if the crewmembers minimize their activities oxygen could last until next week.
The military said the submarine carries no nuclear weapons and that the nuclear reactors aboard have already shut down. Radiation levels are also normal.
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