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British Rescuers Will Save Russian Sailors of "Kursk"
By Artashes Toumanov, TheWorldJournal.com

Saturday is the most important day for the Russian nuclear submarine "Kursk" and its crew. All world will be watching the rescue operation. We will see life or death. According to the latest reports, the submarine has started to plunge into the sea silt. But according to all technical aspects of British mini-sub "LR-5" we could suppose that 118 young sailors will be saved.

Sunday afternoon the Russian nuclear submarine "Kursk", the most powerful submarine in the world, started to send a SOS. messages. It was an ordinary training day for young Russian soldiers. Submarine was preparing to made a training shot when something happened. The submarine suddenly lost control so the crew decided to lay the ship on the bottom of the sea. Even after that they continued to send help messages until Wednesday. On Wednesday Russian military lost communications with "Kursk". Later on, the crew sent SOS messages through the sub's hull but they stopped doing that very soon.

More than 25 Russian military and rescue ships are now trying to help and rescue members of the crew. But nothing is working yet - the weather conditions (storm) and a really strong stream doesn't allow rescuers to connect the submarine. Official investigators consider several causes of what happened with "Kursk". Several hours ago first official theory was announced. It says that the sub hit an unknown object. And there are also several theories of why didn't the crew use the rescue mini-sub that is aboard the "Kursk". One of the reasons is that this area is inaccessible due to the flooding.

The latest bad news is that "Kursk" has started to plunge into the sea silt. The good news is that the submarine has started to change its angle. If before it was 32 degrees, then now it is 12 degrees. It will definitely relieve the rescue operation. Moreover, according to British rescue plan using their special rescue mini-submarine "LR-5", we may say now that the rescue operation could be successful.

"LR-5" have a possibility to connect an object if it's lying with 60 degrees. Now, due to the sea silt, the angle is 12 degrees. British specialists are sure that they would be able to open a trap from the outside, even without using help from inside of the sub. But the rescue "LR-5" mini-sub will start working only on Saturday. The question about how much oxygen left remains. Today military announced that if the crew of the sunken submarine has an access to the special rescue rooms, they might have oxygen till 25-26th of August. If so, rescuers still have time to help them. If the crew doesn't have an access to that room, that means the sub will probably run out of oxygen today or tomorrow.

These minutes the British mini-submarine "LR-5" (with lots of rescuers) is coming closer to the scene of the accident in Barents Sea. Norwegian ship "Seaway Eagle" should arrive soon, too. Saving operations continues 24/7.

On Saturday, Russian, Norwegian and British forces one more time will try to save 118 young lives of Russian sailors trapped in the nuclear submarine on the bottom of the Barents Sea. Only 100 meters are the question of life.

The most terrible death is not just the death from asphyxia. The most terrible death is when you know that someone is trying to help you to avoid your death and it's not working.

© September 26, 2000

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