23 May Have Been Alive in Sub for Days

Twenty-three sailors in the stricken Kursk submarine may have suffered through three days of agony in freezing darkness, waiting to be rescued, a senior Russian admiral said Wednesday.

“I personally think that life in the ninth compartment came to an end on the third day,” Vice Adm. Vladislav Ilyin, the first deputy chief of the Russian navy’s staff, said at a news conference.

His statement contradicted the conclusion of the prosecutor general’s investigation, which said that sailors in the stern could have lived only several hours before succumbing to fumes after the two explosions that sank the vessel in August 2000. All 118 crew members died.

Most of the crewmen were killed instantly by the blasts. However, 23 crewmen remained alive for at least several hours, according to letters found later by rescuers.

The government hesitated for several days before accepting foreign aid, even as Russian submersibles were unsuccessful in opening the escape hatch. When foreign divers reached the Kursk more than a week after the catastrophe, it took them only hours to open it.

“It’s even more painful to hear that 23 people might have survived for three days, and they failed to rescue even one of them,” said Anatoly Safonov, whose son, Lt. Maxim Safonov, died aboard the Kursk.