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The AS-28 is a mini-submarine of the Russian navy belonging to the Project 1855 Priz class. It was designed for submarine rescue operations by Lazurit in Nizhny Novgorod. It is 13.5 m (44ft) long, 5.7m (19ft) high, and can operate up to a depth of 1000m.
Training Accident
On August 5, 2005 the Priz class AS-28 became entangled with anchored underwater antennae (for monitoring submarine activity) on a routine training mission off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, in Berezovaya Bay, 70 km southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kamchatka Oblast. The weighted anchor line snared the propeller of the submarine, and the submarine then sank to the seafloor at a depth of 190 m (600 ft). This was too deep for the crew to leave the submarine and swim to the surface.
The Russian Navy quickly requested assistance, unlike their response when the Kursk sank on 12 August 2000. Immediate support was offered by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, United States Navy, and British Royal Navy. Japan has sent four ships with rescue equipment. Britain has sent a Scorpio 45 ROV via C-17 and a team to operate it. The United States has sent two unmanned Super Scorpio ROVs and a Deep Drone ROV airlifted via C-5 Galaxy and a team to operate them. It is hoped that these unmanned rescue vessels, with their robotic arms, will be able to disentangle the submarine from the nets. The United States has also sent a pair of Canadian divers and deep sea diving suits via C-17 to assess the situation in person on the seabed. There are also plans to use explosives to destroy either the antenna's anchoring cable or its anchor. The Russian Navy is currently attempting to lift the sub by using underslung cables.
The crew of the submarine have donned thermal suits and are limiting their activity to conserve Oxygen. Power and heat have been turned off in the sub to conserve energy reserves.
The Russians may have called for help so quickly this time as they were on a recent exercise with NATO forces for just such an eventuality: [1].
The vessel was under the command of Vyacheslav Milashevsky (25) when the incident occured.
External links
- Press haunted by Kursk memories (Russian reports via BBC)
- where the submarine is stranded (BBC)
- Russians race to rescue sailors (BBC) 5 August, 2005
- Russia races to free trapped mini-sub (Reuters Canada) 6 August, 2005
- World unites to save young skipper and 6 crew (The Age, Australia) 6 August, 2005
- Submarine Rescue Teams Prepare to Use Explosives to Free Vessel (Bloomberg News) 6 August, 2005
- Official: Russian rescuers lifting disabled sub (CNN) 6 August, 2005
See also
- Russian submarine Kursk
- Deep Submergence Vehicle
- Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle
- Super Scorpio
- Major submarine incidents since 2000
- Russian subs sunk in August: Kursk (2000)|K-159 (2003)|AS-28 (2005)
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