Russia Brings In Britain to Help Rescue Sub

Russia swallowed its national pride Wednesday and agreed to allow a British underwater rescue craft to join the massive operation to save sailors trapped in a crippled nuclear submarine beneath ever-stormier Arctic seas.

Knocking sounds and other signs of life ceased coming from the submarine Kursk on Wednesday for the first time since the Russian vessel sank last weekend, officials said. But they emphasized that the crew, now believed to number 118 men, might be conserving their strength and oxygen and were believed to still be alive.

“One needs to take into account the mentality of submarine officers. Once they knew rescue capsules were above them, they maintained silence,” said Russian navy chief Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov. “I now feel far more confident that the operation to rescue the Kursk crew will be successful.”

As furious waves and rain buffeted rescue ships on the surface, strong underwater currents and the sub’s severe list prevented rescue capsules from docking with it for a third day. Winds on Wednesday averaged 35 mph, and visibility underwater was near zero, although conditions eased slightly by this morning. However, the weather forecast at the site, about 85 miles north of the Russian port of Severomorsk, remains poor for the rest of the week.

Practically nothing is known about conditions inside the sub, which is believed to have been without electricity and life support systems since the accident. Estimates Wednesday of how much oxygen remained on board ranged from two to 10 days’ worth, although officials acknowledged that they were just guessing.

Experts said that even without the adverse weather conditions, the submarine rescue operation is perhaps the most complex attempted by any country.

Britain and the United States have repeatedly offered over the past few days to send sophisticated rescue submersibles to the accident site, but Russian officials decided only Wednesday afternoon to invite the British to take part. Deputy navy chief Vice Adm. Vladislav Ilyin said in a television interview that the order to accept foreign assistance had come directly from Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.

“It’s understood that to accept foreign help for the rescue of the Kursk, the Kremlin will have to step on its own self-esteem,” wrote the daily Sevodnya newspaper. “In some ways, the status of Russia as a great naval power will suffer. But it will suffer more if the operation to rescue the Kursk fails.”

Putin Calls Accident ‘Critical’

After five days of silence, Putin made his first public remarks on the accident, describing it as “critical.”

“From the moment it became clear that something had happened, all necessary and possible efforts to save the craft and its crew have been carried out,” Putin said from the southern Russian resort where he is on vacation. “Unfortunately, the weather is very bad. A storm has raged for two days, and sailors have not been able to use all the means at their disposal.”

Meanwhile, a rare public debate raged over whether the authorities--trapped by Cold War reflexes and national pride--delayed too long before accepting Western assistance.

“There’s nothing wrong with national pride, but there’s no reason for pointless national arrogance,” Alexander Mramorov, 16, wrote in a letter published on the front page of the daily Izvestia newspaper.

Still, it remained unclear whether the docking mechanisms on any non-Russian rescue craft will be compatible with the submarine’s hatches. Naval officials said intense technical discussions were underway to determine whether the technology was workable.

A Russian cargo aircraft picked up the British LR5 submersible and its crew from their base in Scotland and flew them to the Norwegian port of Trondheim. The craft was expected to continue to the scene of the rescue today aboard a Norwegian ship. It appeared that the Norwegian vessel--considered the most suitable mother ship for the British submersible--might be unable to reach the disaster site before Saturday.

Official information about the rescue has been sparse and contradictory; the Russian navy didn’t even confirm the accident until Monday, two days after it occurred. On Wednesday, the navy changed the count of those on board the craft from 116 to 118 but provided no explanation for the change.

But intense pressure from both the public and the Kremlin appears to be forcing naval officials to open up to what for them is an unprecedented degree.

For instance, Russia acknowledged Wednesday that in addition to a diving bell, the navy has two of its own rescue submersibles and that they had been working at the scene since at least Tuesday.

News reports said the Russian rescue craft were hampered by the darkness of the water and the strong bottom currents, which were dragging the submarine along the seabed, burying it in silt and tilting it to the side, making docking very difficult. Naval officials at various times have said the submarine was tilted at a 25-, 30- or 60-degree angle.

In addition, one of the Russian submersibles was reportedly damaged during Wednesday’s operations, though details were not provided.

The British LR5 is more sophisticated than the Russian submersibles, better able to operate in strong currents and equipped with video equipment to assist in dark water. It is also able to dock with vessels tilting at as much as 60 degrees. It can rescue 16 people at a time.

Meanwhile, other rescue plans were in the works. Should the submersibles fail, Russian officials are considering lowering pontoons to the sub, about 350 feet underwater, and using them to raise it to the surface. Alternatively, the pontoons could be used to lift the 500-foot-long sub’s stern, where the escape hatch is, above the surface of the water.

However, without calmer seas all such schemes seemed dicey at best.

The Kursk was one of Russia’s premier submarines, relatively new and well equipped. Just three months ago, the crew was honored with an award for being the finest in the Northern Fleet.

Little was known about the cause of the disaster, though much was said, both on the streets and on television.

High-Ranking Officials Aboard

The Kursk was taking part in naval exercises Saturday when it lost contact with other vessels. About 10 high-ranking officers observing the exercises were on board at the time of the accident.

U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged Tuesday that they had heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the Kursk on Saturday. U.S. officials have said that an intelligence-gathering surface ship, the Loyal, and two U.S. submarines were in the area to observe the Russian naval exercises.

The most popular theory of what occurred on the Kursk seemed to be that a torpedo had fired or exploded on board, breaching the hull and destroying backup power systems. Other theories are that the sub collided with another vessel or ran into a mine left over from World War II.

Regardless, most or all of the submarine’s backup systems appeared to have failed, preventing the deployment of its escape capsule, jamming the escape hatch and knocking out all communications. Several of the sub’s 10 compartments appeared to be flooded, and it was unclear whether the sailors had any source of light, oxygen or heat in the dangerously cold waters.

“If [the West] has the ability to render us assistance, regardless of the costs, we should accept it in order to save people’s lives,” reserve Vice Adm. Sergei Vargin, former chief of the political department of the Northern Fleet’s nuclear submarine flotilla, said.

Russian officials say there is little or no danger of nuclear contamination from the submarine, whose reactors have shut down. While the submarine is capable of carrying nuclear missiles, Russian officials said there were none on board at the time of the accident.

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Times staff writer Paul Richter in Washington contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

New Rescue Plan

Fighting 10-foot waves, strong currents, murky water and facing uncertainty about the condition of the crew, rescuers in the Barents Sea hoped a new tackdeployment of a British rescue submersible--would turn the tide in their effort to save the crew of the Russian submarine Kursk. Based on conflicting reports of what actually happened to the Kursk last weekend, here is a look at the submarine’s plunge to the bottom of the ocean and the British rescue capsule on its way.

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Sources: Jane’s Underwater Technology; Slingsby Engineering Ltd.; Register of Offshore Units, Submersibles & Underwater Systems, 1999-2000; Associated Press.

Researched by VICKY McCARGAR and SCOTT J. WILSON/Los Angeles Times *

* SOVIET MEMORIES

With sub information scarce, Russians see many disturbing parallels with Soviet times. A11