April 7, 1989, was the last day of Captain Vanin's life journey. Because the former Soviet Union's "Komsomol" nuclear submarine was on its way back from the coast of Norway, suddenly the wires in the 7th cabin on the boat suddenly short-circuited and caught fire. As a result, the expensive nuclear submarine could not escape the fate of sinking. Why is this happening?
The captain of the nuclear submarine "Komsomol"
(1) misjudged and missed the opportunity, and the fatal code was difficult to decipher.
Speaking of the "Komsomol", it was the latest super-modern ballistic missile nuclear submarine of the former Soviet Union at that time. It once set a world record for the deepest diving depth. However, no one expected that the wires of this nuclear submarine had quality problems. So once a fire occurs, it is often difficult to deal with it.
When a fire broke out in the seventh cabin, Captain Vaning ordered the crew to carry out self-rescue. While issuing an accident alarm, the nuclear device on the boat was quickly shut down; the nuclear submarine also quickly surfaced. However, the fire on the boat was not effectively controlled and quickly spread to other cabins. The entire wire network control panel on the "Komsomol" nuclear submarine was in danger.
In this way, the "Komsomol" bumped on the waves for an hour, and the thick smoke pouring out from the seventh cabin continued to fill the sea.
At this critical moment, Captain Vaning made a wrong decision, relying on the power of the nuclear submarine itself to extinguish the fire, and failing to send an alarm to the North Sea Fleet headquarters in time; just like this, precious time continued to pass, and the "Komsomol member" The number soon came to the final moment.
It was not until 12:26 that Captain Vaning had to send a coded alarm signal to the fleet headquarters through satellite channels. However, what makes matters worse is that none of the lifesaving stations in the vicinity of Scandinavia can decipher the code for help sent by the nuclear submarine "Komsomolsk". What is going on?
It turns out that although the former Soviet Union and Norway signed an agreement to mutually rescue sailors in distress, nuclear submarines could also ask for help from the Norwegian government. However, because the "Komsomolsk" could not send out the internationally accepted "SOS" distress signal, it was ultimately missed. Good opportunity.
After the incident, Navy Warrant Officer Kopeko, who survived the accident, painfully recalled: "Without orders from superiors, Captain Vaning has no right to send out an open international distress signal." Although Kopeko did not specify the specifics. The reason, but with a little analysis afterwards, it is not difficult to come to the conclusion that the former Soviet Union at that time did not want the world to know the secret of the "Komsomol" nuclear submarine.
(2) Those deadly life rafts on the "Komsomol" nuclear submarine.
satellite works silently. It took 289 minutes from the time the accident alarm signal was sent to the sinking of the Komsomolets nuclear submarine. If these time were fully utilized, a successful rescue operation could be organized.
Unfortunately, the rescue operation that the crew expected did not occur because the captain could not publicly send out the "SOS" call for help. The fate of sinking to the bottom of the sea finally came to these brave boats after 4 hours and 49 minutes. on the heads of the members.
When the chemical fire-fighting team on board went all out to extinguish the fire in the seventh cabin, suddenly, the "Komsomol" nuclear submarine could no longer hold up and began to sink slowly. Seeing this, Captain Vaning had to give the cruel order of all personnel to leave the boat.
Ironically, the personal breathing masks used for escape on the boat were not designed to be scientifically designed, making it difficult for the crew to put them on quickly. As a result, some of the sailors who had just been rescued quickly died under the torment of thick smoke and fire. Left the world. The life rafts on the boat have all become background walls.
When a sailor shouted "Hurry up and release the life raft", something unexpected happened. The life raft that could accommodate more than 20 people was firmly tied to the boat. The crew was in a hurry and finally lowered a life raft to the water. However, they made a mistake and the self-inflating raft did not open. Before they could open the inflatable raft, the life raft had already been washed away by the rough waves.
When a crew member hurriedly went to untie the second life raft, a huge wave suddenly hit him, knocking him and the life raft into the sea, and then swept him away. The brave crewman struggled to open the life raft at the last moment of his life. But unfortunately, the bottom of the life raft was facing up, and the other crew members on the boat could not get on.
Under the turbulent waves, it is simply impossible to overturn the life raft weighing more than 100 kilograms. So everyone had to watch helplessly as the second life raft was washed away by the waves again.
In the end, a total of 42 sailors died on the "Komsomol" nuclear submarine, and only 27 survived.
It is somewhat incredible that the life raft on the "Komsomol" nuclear submarine cannot effectively save the crew when the nuclear submarine has an accident. What is even more unimaginable is that the Soviet engineers and technicians who designed the placement of the life rafts at that time directly cost the precious lives of 42 crew members due to their own mistakes.
(3) The final outcome of the "Komsomolsk" nuclear submarine
When the "Komsomolsk" sank rapidly with two nuclear warheads , surprisingly, there were still 6 people in the boat who had no time to escape. Among them was Captain Vaning himself.
In order to escape, they walked towards the only escape channel-the ejection room on the boat. Just as Vaning and four other crew members entered the ejection room, a crew member next to him was unfortunately swallowed by the water that poured into the boat.
As the nuclear submarine continued to sink and the pointer of the seawater depth sounder dropped sharply, the anxious captain Vaning gave an order to a warrant officer beside him, "Open the top cover of the ejection room quickly, otherwise we will have to fight with the submarine." They are all buried under the sea.” But what disappointed Vaning was that the top cover of the ejection chamber could not be opened at all due to the huge water pressure of the sea. Unexpectedly, fate was here and played a huge joke on these people who were eager to survive.
When the nuclear submarine sank to a depth of about 400 meters, the hull suddenly shook, and the pointer of the seawater depth sounder finally stopped completely. Just when everything was about to end, a sailor found 5 sets of breathing masks. On the seabed hundreds of meters deep, only by putting on a respirator and getting out of the nuclear submarine can there be a glimmer of hope for survival.
However, when a large amount of seawater poured into the boat, it was not easy for Captain Vaning or several other crew members to put on a respirator and escape outside the boat.
At that time, Vidocq, who was the only one to emerge from the nuclear submarine wearing a respirator, left such a thrilling memory to us today.
"We were at a depth of about 600 meters. The bulkhead of the cabin was blown up, and most of us were knocked down. It may be that the powerful force of the explosion shook the ejection chamber away from the sinking hull. Just like that, my partner died in front of me before he had time to put on his breathing mask, while the ejection room flew straight up like a float. "
Partial list of crew members of the Komsomolsk nuclear submarine In decades. Today, this expensive nuclear submarine "Komsomolets", which is equipped with first-class equipment and is still on the seabed of Norway; the nuclear reactor and the nuclear torpedo on the boat have not only not been salvaged yet, but also The nuclear warhead carried in the boat contained 6 kilograms of plutonium, which became a "time bomb" buried deep along the coast of Norway.
and went through a life and death struggle. Although Vidocq was finally rescued floating on the Norwegian sea, it was neither the first nor the last incident like the sinking of the "Komsomolsk" nuclear submarine. In August 2000, the nuclear submarine Kursk, known as the 'Aircraft Carrier Terminator', was quietly destroyed due to an accident during an exercise in the Barents Sea, north of the Kola Peninsula. It sank to the bottom of the sea and all 118 officers and soldiers on board were killed.
