Russian Submarine K-141 Kursk - Rescue Attempts

Rescue Attempts

Though rescue attempts were offered by the British and Norwegian teams, Russia declined initial rescue offers. All 118 sailors and officers aboard Kursk perished. The Russian Admiralty at first suggested most of the crew died within minutes of the explosion; however, the motivations for making the claim are considered by outside observers as political since some of the sailors had time to write notes.

Captain Lieutenant Dmitriy Kolesnikov, one of the survivors of the first explosion, survived in Compartment 9 at the very stern of the boat after blasts destroyed the forward spaces of the submarine. Recovery workers found notes on his body. They showed 23 sailors (out of 118 aboard) had waited in the dark with him.

There has been much debate over how long the sailors might have survived. Some, particularly on the Russian side, say they would have died very quickly; water is known to leak into a stationary Oscar-II craft through the propeller shafts. Others point out that many potassium superoxide chemical cartridges, used to absorb carbon dioxide and chemically release oxygen to enable survival, were found used when the craft was recovered, suggesting some of the crew survived for several days. Kolesnikov's last note has a time of 15:15, indicating that he and the others in the aft compartment lived at least four hours after the explosion.

These cartridges appear to have been the cause of death; a sailor appears to have accidentally brought a cartridge in contact with the sea water, causing a chemical reaction and a flash fire. The official investigation into the disaster showed some men appeared to have survived the fire by plunging under the water. (Fire marks on the walls indicate the water was at waist level in the lower area at this time.) However, the fire rapidly used up the remaining oxygen in the air, causing death by asphyxiation.

While the tragedy of Kursk played out in the Far North, Russia's then President Vladimir Putin, though immediately informed of the tragedy, waited for five days before he broke a holiday at a presidential resort house in subtropical Sochi on the Black Sea before commenting publicly on the loss of the pride of the Northern Fleet. A year later he said: "I probably should have returned to Moscow, but nothing would have changed. I had the same level of communication both in Sochi and in Moscow, but from a PR point of view I could have demonstrated some special eagerness to return."