A few months ago I was watching the directors commentary for the movie the Russian’s are coming, which involves a crash landed Russian submarine near a small seaside town.
The director said that the military had suggested that such a scenario was impossible because no sub could get so close to the US without being detected. The director countered this view by saying something along the lines of “Of course we know this was not the case, after all there was that appendicitis incident a few years back.”
Any dopers old enough to know what he is referring to? I’ve tried googling but basically came up blank.
According to the book Hostile Waters there was a case of appendicitis onboard the Soviet K-219, which sunk due to a missile tube malfunction north of Bermuda in an area patrolled by US subs, so that might be what he was referring to. The appendicitis wasn’t related to the accident however; apparently they just had a string of bad luck.
Is the reference to a few years back supposed to be a few years from now, or from when the movie was released? On the assumption that it’s the latter, I searched the New York Times archives. There’s a story from November 1968 in which a Russian doctor removed his own appendix on board a submarine in the Pacific. But nothing so far that suggests that one got into US waters undetected.
Taleperion may be right although its not a perfect match.
I don’t remember the quote verbatim so I’m not sure of the timing, but my impression was that the time of the incident was approximately contemporary with the making of the movie. There were no real details given, It was given like a throw away line as though most people should remember it. My guess was that it was something like a Russian sub made contact with America to get medical help for one of their crew.
Are you sure you’re not getting mixed up with the Russian doctor that performed an auto-appendectomy in Antarctica? I haven’t heard of the 1968 story with a Russian doctor removing his own appendix on a submarine.
Here’s a link to the story I mentioned, although you may not be able to read the full thing without paying. The article says that, according to Pravda, Dr Alexei Shapovalov gave himself a local anesthesia and extracted the appendix with the assistance of two sailors.