All 7 crew members alive after Russian sub rescue

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia – Seven people on board a submarine trapped for nearly three days under the Pacific Ocean were rescued today after a British remote-controlled vehicle cut away the undersea cables that had snarled their vessel, allowing it to surface.

The seven, whose oxygen supplies had been dwindling amid underwater temperatures in the mid-40s, appeared to be in satisfactory condition, naval spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said. They were examined in the clinic of a naval ship, then transferred to a larger vessel to return to the mainland.

“The crew opened the hatch themselves, exited the vessel and climbed aboard a speedboat,” said Rear Adm. Vladimir Pepelyayev, deputy head of the naval general staff.

“I can only thank our English colleagues for their joint work and the help they gave in order to complete this operation within the time we had available – that is, before the oxygen reserves ran out,” he said.

The sub surfaced at 4:26 p.m. local time, some three days after becoming stranded in 600 feet of water off the Pacific Coast on Thursday and after a series of failed attempts to drag it closer to shore or haul it closer to the surface. It was carrying six sailors and a representative of the company that manufactured it.

In an echo of the Kursk sinking, President Vladimir Putin had made no public comment today on the mini-sub drama. Putin remained on vacation as the Kursk disaster unfolded, raising criticism that he appeared either callous or ineffectual.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov traveled to Kamchatka on Saturday.

But in sharp contrast to the August 2000 Kursk disaster, when authorities held off asking for help until hope was nearly exhausted, Russian military officials quickly sought help from U.S. and British authorities. All 118 people on board the Kursk died, some surviving for hours as oxygen ran out

As U.S. and British crews headed toward the trapped sub, Russian officials considered varying ways of freeing the vessel.

The Interfax news agency quoted Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Viktor Fyodorov as saying crews planned to try to blow up or tear away the anchoring system in an effort to free the vessel – an idea that apparently was later discarded.

Dygalo later said Russian rescue crews managed to loop cables under the assembly and were preparing to try to lift the vessel closer to the surface, where divers could try to rescue the sailors.

That effort failed. But by this afternoon, a British remote-controlled Super Scorpio cut away the cables that had snarled the vessel in Beryozovaya Bay, about 10 miles off the east coast of the Kamchatka peninsula, which juts into the sea north of Japan.

But even that attempt was hampered. A mechanical problem with the Super Scorpio forced workers to bring the rescue vehicle to the surface, just after the discovery of a fishing net caught on the nose of the submarine, Russian officials said.

The United States also dispatched a crew and three underwater vehicles to Kamchatka, but they never left the port.

Officials said the Russian submarine was participating in a combat training exercise and got snarled on an underwater antenna assembly that is part of a coastal monitoring system. The system is anchored with a weight of about 66 tons, according to news reports.

Officials said the sub’s propeller initially became ensnared in a fishing net.