M A I N   N E W S

No sign of life on Russian sub

MOSCOW, Aug 16 (DPA) — Russia finally accepted foreign help today in operations to save survivors of the 116-man crew of the nuclear submarine Kursk which was stranded on the bottom of the Barents Sea for the fifth day.

A British team equipped with a submersible rescue craft flew from Scotland to Trondheim in Norway minutes after the Russians gave the go-ahead.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted the situation of the Kursk was “critical” and senior officials in Moscow said there were no signs of life from the vessel.

The head of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, confirmed that Russia had sought outside help after insisting for the past two days that it had all the necessary equipment.

The British LR5 rescue craft is able to dock onto the hatches of listing Kursk at a 60° angle, beyond the 45° capability of the Russian craft.

In addition, three Hercules aircraft were being loaded at a military airfield to take decompression chambers to Murmansk in case the Russian crew needed them, the Ministry of Defence in London said.

A survey vessel, the Scorpio, was also ready to sail for the Barents Sea. It is used for clearing obstacles and has life support systems on board.

Russian Navy rescue teams meanwhile used two more capsules in efforts to reach the sub in stormy conditions on Wednesday. The capsules can evacuate groups of 20 men from the vessel if docking is achieved, and are carrying oxygen reserves.

The attempts were complicated by periodic shifting of the submarine in strong currents and poor visibility of no more than two metres.

Meanwhile, Russia today narrowly escaped losing one of its rescue mini-subs due to bad weather.

Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo told ORT television strong underwater currents and a storm raging at the surface in the area of the Arctic where the rescue operation was underway put at risk the lives of the rescuers themselves.

“There were moments when we were on the brink of losing the rescue vehicle,” he said.

Mr Dygalo said despite adverse weather conditions, the military was pressing ahead with efforts to lift the crew to safety.

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 the water.

The rescuers have so far failed to dock with the stricken submarine where more than 100 servicemen remain trapped since Saturday with dwindling supplies of oxygen.

The men, trapped in darkness on the damaged vessel which sank when they shut off the reactor after an accident at the weekend, were likely to be lying down to save energy as air runs low, a navy spokesman said.

Cooped up inside the vessel, they have tapped out signals heard by rescue teams, but these have become fainter.

The last time rescue vessels in the area monitored SoS signals tapped by the submarine crew was on Tuesday afternoon.

However, the head of the Northern Fleet Press Office, Vladimir Navorotsky, was quoted as saying contact had not been lost. We will maintain optimism about the outcome of the operation until August 18, he said. Admiral Kuroyedov said he was not surprised by the pause in tapping.

“One needs to take into account the mentality of submarine officers. Once they knew rescue capsules were above them, they maintained silence,’’ he said, referring to the need for the sailors to avoid physical effort to save oxygen.

He said that if attempts to evacuate the crew using capsules fail, two 400-tonne inflatable pontoons may be used to lift the whole vessel.

But Tass quoted the Northern Fleet Press Office as saying pontoons could not lift the huge sub to the surface. Rather, they could raise it from the seabed 108 metres down to a depth of some 50 metres (150 feet) where scuba divers could operate.