The first of its kind, a nuclear submarine went down in 1954. Being a formidable weapon in the waters of the oceans, submarines are a danger to humanity and to their own crew. Due to a fire on the deep-sea apparatus of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation “Losharik” on July 1 of this year 14 sailors were killed. In this regard, we decided to recall the 10 largest accidents in submarines.
10. SS-109 (USS S-4), USA (1927)
Until 1944, most of the service of the submarine was carried out above the water and was only immersed to attack or hide from the enemy. The American SS-109 sank off the Cape Cod Peninsula, having been rammed by a coast guard ship. As a result, 40 troops were killed. Surprisingly, the boat returned to service a year after the accident and worked until it was decommissioned in 1936.
9. "Pike" C117, USSR (1952)
S117 - the progenitor of one of the largest submarines in the world. During the flooding of the Soviet diesel-electric submarine with torpedoes, 52 sailors went missing. The cause of the disaster and the place of the death of the ship are not known to date. The incident happened in December 1952 while preparing for training exercises on the Sea of Japan.
Having not reached the venue of the exercises, the commander of the S-117 reported that the right engine was faulty, so the combat unit was going to the designated square on one diesel engine. After some time, the captain reported on troubleshooting. After this, there was no longer any connection with the team. The search for "Pike", which was carried out until 1953, ended in nothing.
8. “Thresher" SSN-593, USA, (1963)
The wreck of an American nuclear submarine claimed 129 lives during exercises near the coastline of Massachusetts (USA). SSN-593 went to sea to test the strength of the hull at extreme depths. Due to mechanical damage to the hull, the submarine hurriedly sank and exploded under water at around 732 meters. As shown by photographing from the scene of the accident at a depth of 2.5 km, the explosion was strong and caused a scatter of large debris in a circle with a radius of 300 m.
7. K129, USSR (1968)
K-129 with a diesel engine and nuclear warheads sank on March 8, 1968 in the Pacific Ocean (near the Hawaiian Islands) along with a team of 96 to 98 submariners (data vary). The cause of the accident remained unsolved, but several theories were put forward, one of which was a collision with an unknown state ship.
According to the official report of the U.S. Navy, which could find the K-129 in 1974, the blame for the tragic catastrophe that happened with the Soviet submarine was an explosion on board. When the ship was raised by the forces of the Navy of America, the submarine broke into two parts, but some parts of large units were delivered to one of the enemy fleet's locations. During their inspection, the bodies of six Soviet sailors were taken out, which, with all honors, were later buried by the Americans at sea.
6. "Scorpio" SSN-589, USA (1968)
The US military lost its second nuclear submarine and 99 sailors on May 21, 1968 in the Atlantic, 740 km southwest of the Azores. The crew was supposed to return to the base after 5 days, but fate decreed otherwise. Later, the sunken machine was searched in vain for about six months by the forces of about 60 ships and 30 aircraft. Soon Scorpion was found at a depth of about 3,000 meters using sonar.
As often happens, the cause of the disaster has not yet been established. The most possible justification for the reasons was the detonation of the torpedo, but some experts saw this as a carefully concealed fact of the elimination of the Scorpion by the Soviet submarine fleet.
5. K-8 (project 627A "KIT"), USSR (1970)
The first sad deprivation of the USSR’s nuclear fleet was the wreck of the K-8, along with all those on board (52 people). April 12, 1970, being on patrol in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the nuclear submarines ordered to be redeployed to the Bay of Biscay to participate in large-scale exercises called “Ocean-70”.
The main task of the ship was to identify the forces of a potential enemy, breaking through underwater to the sea borders of the USSR. The nuclear ship sank before the start of training maneuvers, scheduled for April 14, as a result of a fatal fire. K-8 KIT sank 500 km from Spain, losing longitudinal stability and generally buoyancy. Dying, the crew managed to neutralize nuclear reactors.
4. K-278 "Komsomolets" (project 685 "Fin"), USSR (1989)
42 Soviet soldiers died the death of the brave (mostly from hypothermia), 27 team members escaped.
A nuclear submarine of the third generation, equipped with quick-loading torpedo tubes, at that time was the record holder for the depth of lowering under water among others - 1027 meters - a record was recorded in 1985. Despite its capabilities, Komsomolets died and sank in the Norwegian Sea after a fire in two adjacent compartments.
This happened on April 7, 1989, when the car was traveling at a speed of 14.8 km / h (8 knots) at a shallow depth of 380 meters. As a result of the emergency, tank systems of the main ballast were struck, through which sea water filled the submarine.
3. "Kursk" K-141 (project 949A "Antei"), Russia (2000)
The service of the nuclear submarine cruiser-missile carrier was tragically interrupted on August 12, 2000 during tactical exercises in the Barents Sea at a mark of just over 100 meters. Two fatal explosions thundered due to fuel leaking from the torpedo engine, and most of the crew (out of 118 people on board) died suddenly.
Twenty-three submariners were able to move to the intact compartment at the rear, where they waited a long week for help to come. They died from a lack of oxygen, without waiting for the successful completion of the rescue operation unfolding in the waters between the Russian Federation and Norway. By the number of deaths among submariners, this accident became one of the largest on nuclear boats in the post-war period of the history of the Russian fleet. “She drowned” ... So V.V. answered Putin to the question of the American journalist "What happened to the Kursk Russian submarine?" live channel CNN.
The process of lifting the K-141 in several stages took place over a period of 12 months by twenty states. The cost of the search and recovery operation at that time was estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. After excavating the remains of the ship, one hundred and fifteen dead submariners were found and buried. Three sailors were never found. Potentially dangerous weapons of the boat and nuclear reactors (2 pcs.) Were evacuated.
2. "Min 361", China (2003)
On April 16, 2003, during a regular naval training exercise in Bohaiwan Bay (the Yellow Sea, northeast coast of China), an abnormal situation occurred on the Min 361 submarine - a diesel engine breakdown. The malfunction contributed to an early reduction in oxygen levels. The entire crew (70 people) subsequently lost their lives from strangulation.
Then the Chinese authorities first unveiled the fact of the catastrophe of the submarine fleet. According to data released on May 2, 2003, “Min 361” was found by local fishermen who accidentally hooked the periscope with their nets, 9 days after the tragic incident.
1. San Juan, Argentina (2017)
The captain of “San Juan” stopped contacting on November 15, 2017, complaining before that about problems with the power supply. Then the submarine with a crew of 44 people was at the transition from the naval base in Mar del Plata, 1400 km from the capital of Argentina. After a day, communication with them failed. Almost 2 weeks after the loss of the boat, it was reported that the operation to rescue the sailors was stopped, since the oxygen reserves, according to calculations, could last only for a week.
The Argentinean Navy submarine was discovered by sonar only in November 2018, a year after its disappearance, at the bottom of the ocean. The causes of the emergency became known the other day, from a report of a German company, a manufacturer of sunken submarines. Experts believe that the flooding of the compartments began through a valve in the battery compartments. This led to a short circuit, and, accordingly, to an explosion.
The commander of the missing Argentinean nuclear submarine San Juan, before the training camp, promised his mother that this would be the last trip to the sea ...
