Russia accepts British help as rescue attempts fail

A state-of-the-art British mini-submersible was in fact flown to Norway today from Prestwick airport in Scotland. The rescue vessel, known as lr5, could be on site no earlier than Saturday, the Norwegian news agency, NTB, said today.

The mini-sub, which arrived from the central Norwegian port city of Trondheim, was to be loaded onto a cargo ship and transported by sea to the site of the sunken vessel in a voyage expected to take at least 52 hours, the agency said.

With years of involvement in North Atlantic and North Sea oil extraction operations, Britain and British technicians have a relatively high degree of experience with deep-sea rescues.

Putin had earlier said the operation to rescue the crew members was in a critical condition. “The rescue of the crew of the Kursk nuclear-powered submarine is at a grave, better to say, critical stage,” he said on ORT Television, adding that “whatever can be done is being done to rescue the crew members and the submarine”.

He was speaking to reporters at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, after meeting Security Council secretary Sergei Ivanov and Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who is heading the government commission set up to investigate the causes of the accident. Ivanov and Klebanov informed Putin about the progress in the rescue operation.

Russian naval officials are now busy working out a plan to lift the grounded sub to the surface, if all attempts to rescue the beleaguered 116 sailors on board with the help of the so-called diving bell fails by Friday — the day on which the submarine is expected to run out of oxygen.

The survivors among the crew of the submarine were heard banging on the hull of the stricken vessel today once again after almost a day of silence, navy officials said. “We are hearing signals so there is still hope of saving them,” the deputy head of the navy general staff, Vice Admiral Vladislav Ilyin was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

Navy officials had said earlier water appeared to be leaking into the submarine which suffered extensive damage after an explosion in the torpedo compartment at the front of the vessel; the cause was not clear, the navy said. The submarine’s conning tower was damaged and protective covers of two missile tubes on the vessel’s right side were missing, it said.

Russian navy rescuers have so far made four attempts to dock a pilotedrescue capsule to the sub, which is resting at a depth of about 350 feet,in Barents Sea, since it ran aground on Saturday.

Admiral Kuroyedev, commander of the navy, told reporters today they could hope to save the crew members till Friday, when the oxygen on board the submarine would run out. “We shall remain optimistic till August 18,” he said, adding that rescue operations will continue though all attempts so far to enter the Kursk have failed.

Admiral Kuroyedev admitted that the navy was working on a last-ditch attempt to lift the 25,000-tonne sub with the help of inflatable pontoons and straps.Pontoons weighing 400 tons each will be placed on both sides of the Kursk. Then air will be pumped into them under great pressure, in an attempt to lift the sub with the help of straps from the seabed.

However, it was not immediately clear how long such a manoeuvre could takeor whether it was at all feasible. Tass quoted the Northern Fleet press office as saying pontoons won’t be able to lift the huge sub to the surface. Rather, they could raise it from the seabed to a depth of some 50 metres (150 feet) where scuba divers could operate.

The head of the naval press service, Capt Igor Dygalo, told the government-controlled Russian television RTR that rescue attempts today were being hampered by the bad weather over the area of accident. “There were moments when we were on the brink of losing the rescue vehicle,” he said. In fact, Itar-tass news agency said crushing waves today damaged one of three mini-subs employed in the operation as it was being pulled out of water.

Capt Dygalo added that the rescuers’ task was made even more difficult by the fact that the Kursk was tilting at 60 degrees, making the diving rescue bell’s docking with the sub impossible. Moreover, the diving bell can accommodate only about six or seven sailors at a time, which would require rescuers to make 16 rounds to the sea-bed if they can dock with the Kursk.

According to Russia’s naval headquarters, up to 20 ships are participating in the rescue operation. While the diving bell was seen as having the best chance of success, experts said rescuers have other options. For example, one could be Russia’s Mir deep-diving mini-subs, previously used to investigate the wreckage of the Titanic.

Meanwhile, the deputy chief of naval staff, Alexander Pobozhi, lefthere today for Brussels to meet NATO officials to discuss ways to save thesailors from suffocation, Interfax news agency said. A group of Russian military officers held a video conference with NATO’s naval experts during which a number of technical operations for the rescue effort were discussed.