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Russian Navy Denies Report on More Kursk Crew
The Russian navy Tuesday denied media reports that there were 130 crewmen instead of 118 aboard the sunken nuclear submarine Kursk, the Interfax news agency quoted the navy as saying.
"The real exact number has been announced, and it is now and will remain 118 people. It is an official roster of the personnel on the submarine," Igor Dygalo, aide to the commander-in-chief of the Russian navy, said in a statement.
"In accordance with all requirements that have to be met, when organizing military training, and especially the military training of submarine forces, the presence of additional people, so-called passengers, at sea is prohibited," said the statement.
"We said right away that besides the crew the submarine was also carrying representatives of the headquarters of the unit, to which this submarine belonged, and one civil specialist. This is all normal practice. Ships often go to military training with representatives of the headquarters of their unit and industry representatives on board," it noted.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda daily on Tuesday quoted sources as saying that there may have been civilians among the 12 persons that were not regular crew members of Kursk.
The nuclear submarine went down to sea when it was attending a military exercise in the Barents Sea on August 12. Rescue efforts were declared futile and all the 118 sailors on board declared dead on Monday. The cause of the tragedy remains hazy.
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