US and British planes carrying robotic undersea vehicles landed in Russia's far east yesterday to help rescue seven sailors trapped in a mini-submarine deep in the Pacific.
Authorities plan to use the unmanned submersibles, known as Super Scorpios, to investigate the accident site and possibly cut the sub loose from entanglements that have held it some 190m below the surface since Thursday.
Rescuers made contact with the crew last night and said their condition was "satisfactory," despite temperatures as low as 5oC, Russian Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Viktor Fyodorov said.
Russia's plea for international assistance underlined the deficiencies of its once-mighty navy and strongly contrasted with the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk five years ago, when authorities held off asking for help until hope was nearly exhausted. All 118 crew died in that accident.
But even with Moscow's quick call for help, rescue workers were racing to free the men before their oxygen supply ran out.
Navy officials have given various estimates of the air supply. Some say it could last into tomorrow. Rear Admiral Vladimir Pepelyayev, deputy head of the navy's general staff, said yesterday that the air would likely last to the end of the day and possibly through today.
"I think it should be enough to last to the end of the [rescue] operation," he said.
Navy spokesman Captain Igor Dygalo said rescue efforts involving the US and British equipment could begin around 8pm Moscow time, Russian news agencies reported. But by early afternoon, the vehicles had not been loaded onto ships in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the rain-soaked Kamchatka peninsula.
Georgy Romanovich, spokesman for the rescue operation headquarters, said it would take five hours for a ship carrying the equipment to reach the site in Beryozovaya Bay, about 75km south of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the capital of the peninsula region north of Japan and west of Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
The vessel, which had been participating in a combat training exercise, got caught on an underwater antenna assembly that is part of Russia's coastal monitoring system.
Officials have said the sub's propeller initially became ensnared in a fishing net.
The Interfax news agency quoted Fyodorov as saying crews planned to try to blow up the anchoring system in an effort to free the vessel, but it was unclear how that would be done.
Apparently lacking rescue vehicles capable of operating at the depth where the sub is stranded, the cash-strapped Russian navy's rescue efforts have focused on trying to grab and drag the sub with a trawling apparatus.
Dygalo earlier said that rescuers had managed to move the sub about 60m toward shore by hooking onto a part of the underwater antenna on which the sub was caught, but reports said the hauling system then became unattached.
"We won't try to drag it any-more. We will try to lift the whole system, rip it off and bring it to the surface," Fyodorov said on NTV television.
The events and the array of confusing and contradictory statements darkly echoed the sinking of the Kursk. That disaster shocked Russians and demonstrated that the once-mighty navy had deteriorated as funding dried up following the 1991 Soviet collapse.
The new crisis indicated that promises by Russian President Vladimir Putin to improve the navy's equipment have had little effect. Putin was criticized for his slow response to the Kursk crisis and reluctance to accept foreign help. By midday yesterday, Putin had made no public comment.
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
RSS