Some Lived Through Kursk Explosions
Friday October 27 8:51 AM ET
By IVAN SEKRETAREV, Associated Press Writer
MURMANSK, Russia (AP) - Stormy seas prevented divers from entering
the nuclear submarine Kursk (news - web sites) on Friday, a day after naval
officials revealed evidence that more than 20 seamen had survived the initial
explosions that sank the vessel.
Meanwhile, anger against the government for its slow and confused response
to the Aug. 12 disaster was revived after officials found an emotional letter in
the pocket of a dead crewman describing the survivors' moments after the
catastrophe.
``The Kursk crew has been buried alive,'' Veronika Marchenko, head of the
anti-military association Mother's Right, said in a statement issued Friday.
``The government was trying to solve all possible problems, such as
concealing the tragedy, protecting military secrets, raising the plummeting
popularity of the president, paying off too-persistent relatives or hushing up
honest journalists. All except one: acting quickly to save the crew.''
``We should think what to do to make the government value citizens' lives
more than oil, military secrets or its own prestige.''
Winds of up to 56 mph and a force-six gale in the Barents Sea kept divers
away from the wreck Friday due to the danger of being jerked about on their
tethers, said Northern Fleet spokesman Capt. Vladimir Navrotsky.
``The weather is worsening, with a snowstorm raging around the rescue site,''
he said.
On Wednesday, divers recovered four bodies from the Kursk's eighth and
ninth compartments. Officials found a note in the pocket of a submariner
identified as Lt. Dmitry Kolesnikov, which gave the first firm indication that
some of the sailors had remained alive for at least several hours after the
explosions that sank the submarine.
Fragments from Kolesnikov's message told a horrifying story of the
submariners' struggle for life, saying 23 survivors had gathered in a
compartment in the stern, hoping to get out through the escape hatch.
Most of the Kursk's crew of 118 apparently died instantly in the explosions
that sent a giant fireball and shock wave ripping through the first five
compartments, or perished within minutes as water roared into the submarine.
But the revelation that some died a slow and torturous death - by drowning,
hypothermia or suffocation - has brought back the horror that gripped the
nation in the days after the disaster. And once again, it called into question
whether the government could have saved some of the crew if it had not
balked for days at accepting foreign aid.
After the Kursk sank, Russian submersibles were unable to latch onto the
hatch, and the cash-strapped navy didn't have deep-sea divers who could
enter the submarine. When Norwegian divers were finally invited to perform
the work, four days after the sinking, they did it within hours.
The newspaper Segodnya said Kolesnikov's note was ``deadly for the
government.''
``The authorities buried the Kursk too early, maybe even when it was still
alive,'' it said.
Kolesnikov's note gave no indication of whether any of the crew had survived
beyond a few hours. Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov quickly ruled out
Thursday that there was any chance to save any of the crew.
Northern Fleet commander Adm. Vyacheslav Popov said Friday he believed
no seamen could have survived longer than one day.
``The time of death can be established only by forensic expertise,'' he said.
``As a submariner, I can only assume that the crew died no later than Aug.
13, and most likely before midnight of Aug. 12.''
The statement has puzzled some experts and drew suspicions that the navy
officials were withholding some information.
``They could have died within 24 hours or they could have lasted longer than
that,'' said Clifford Beal, editor of Jane's Defense Weekly in London.
``Unless Adm. Popov has more information than he is giving out, I don't see
how he could say that at this point.''
``The level of disinformation on the part of the Northern Fleet during the
rescue operation makes me doubtful that we can trust even the information
they are giving out now,'' Beal said.
Popov said he had little hope the divers would be able to recover all the
bodies from the ninth compartment, which is littered with equipment
dislodged from stowage places by the explosions. He said it took divers
more than two hours to recover one body that had been squeezed between
two metal cases.
``It's very difficult for the divers to move inside the ninth compartment,'' he
said. Nevertheless, he said the divers would try to remove as many bodies as
they could when the weather permits. The Navy has previously said it would
cancel the operation if it is too risky for the divers.
Officials initially planned to hold a memorial ceremony Saturday in
Severomorsk, the headquarters of the Northern Fleet, but postponed it
because of the gale that prevented helicopters from bringing the four bodies
to the shore.
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