…of the Bering Sea. Aside for the cruel death awaiting the poor guys inside, I have a few questions for any Us Navt submariners out there:
-initial reports said that the sub may have collided with something-assuming it wasn’t one of ours, how do you collide with something in 500 ft. deep water?
-the sub is fairley modern (1994), so its internal should be in good shape-why would they have had to shut the reactors down?
-can the sailors attemp a “free escape” ( ie. a release from a flooded compartment) at 485 feet? has this ever been done?
-given that there is no electricity (except from the batteries) how long can they last?
-does this class of sub (Oscar II) have a titanium hull?
-finally, if the Russians requested it, would the US Navy attempt a rescue? could we even do anything?
Hope for some good responses!
eg—I shoulda made the title more explicit, but there’s already a discussion going on here:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=34591
If the Russians requested it, the US would certainly attempt a rescue. But the last story I read said there were already several Russian rescue boats there.
people are starting to suspect that the “collision” is a cover story for an explosion. anyway, theoretically, they could collide with another sub (no reports of that)
from what I heard today on the radio, the Russian Navy has not requested assistance, and even if they did, there may not be much the US could do because our rescue equipment is not compatable with their sub design. I don’t understand why, but that’s what I heard on NPR.
In the order you asked them:
-They changed their story. Now they’re saying internal explosion.
-Just being cautious. Besides, they get absolutely no maintenance anyway (Russia’s broke–not enough money to keep 'em maintained)
-Now they’re saying “between 330 and 450 feet”. Sure they can try. Freedive record is 500 feet (going down, then back up with no gear.) so it’s possible.
-The batteries might last a week.
-No. It’s steel.
-Yes, but they haven’t. We probably could.
Supposedly, the evacuation effort is underway.
Good luck to’em.
Tom Clancy was on CNN last night about this. He said that yes they could get out, but the problem is that the Russian subs will not open the escape hatches if they are past a certain lean angle.
As for running into something at 500 feet why not? there are all sorts of obstructions in the ocean and since you can’t see it’s pretty easy. plus nautical charts don’t show EVERYTHING even though they try, you can have pinnicle rocks that stick up hundreds of feet and are only a few feet in diameter.
Here in San Diego there was a whole bunch of fanfare this morning as reports were that they were loading all kinds of rescue equipment and a special mini-sub aboard a C-5 to transport out there.
The reports we heard out here were that a torpedo exploded quasi-internally (i.e. they blew themselves up accidentally), severely damaging the front portion of the sub which prevented them from using their ballast tanks to get to the surface themselves.
A guy I work with who used to work on submarines unfortunately says they are likely not going to make it because they’ll run out of air before a rescue crew can get down there.
Yeah…the region where the Titanic sank is full of all sorts of underwater ridges and cliffs…it’s called the Grand Banks.