Mini-sub stuck in Pacific, Russia sends SOS to US, UK

More than 30 hours after the AS-28 mini-sub snagged on the Pacific sea floor, Russian ships had to abandon attempts to cut it free from the net wrapped around the propeller. A new tactic—dragging the submarine along with the net into shallower water—brought quicker results.

‘‘We have hooked the whole tangle including our submersible object. In all this time, it has been moved almost a kilometre,’’ Admiral Viktor Fyodorov, commander of the Pacific fleet, told NTV television. ‘‘We are continuing our work to get her to a shallower place.’’

Though much smaller in scale, the accident had uncomfortable echoes of the disaster involving the Kursk nuclear submarine almost exactly five years ago. All 118 seamen on the Kursk died in the accident in August 2000 in the Barents Sea that occurred after explosions on board.

Russia, which said it had 10 ships in the rescue effort, asked Japan as well as the United States and Britain for help. A US Navy spokesman said a Super Scorpio, an unmanned deep diving submarine capable of reaching a depth of 1,515 metres, would be airlifted to the scene from San Diego in California.