All language subtitles for Kursk-Submarine-Disaster-en

Saturday August 12 2011 20 M the

southern Barents Sea north of murmansk

russia

even in summer snow can fall on these

waters that border the Kola Peninsula

[Music]

but they are the only permanently ice

tree access that russia's northern fleet

has to the world and it is at this time

of year that russia conducts war games

for the ships of this fleet

today the Russian Cruiser Peter the

00:02:06,159
asked when did the the Kursk accident

actually happen and the easy answer is

to say it happened on August 12th 2000

but actually that the real answer it has

happened 10 years earlier it happened

when the the Soviet Union collapsed the

Revolution in 1991 would bring freedoms

that Russians had been dreaming of for

decades but it would also reveal that

what had been the Soviet Union was on

the brink 00:03:06,960
in the way of financial backup and

support is really quite difficult that

it soon becomes potentially dangerous

but these guys were so so transcendently

patriotic about what they were doing for

the weather they were willing to defend

it and they were proud of defending it

regardless of what it took even amidst

the cutbacks the seventh member of a new

class of submarines is launched in May

1994 00:04:14,390
kursk is five stories high on the length

of two jumbo jets in to end our mess

decks are spacious amazingly she even

has sauna baths and a swimming pool to

move all this through the water Kursk is

powered by two nuclear reactors that can

propel her at almost 30 knots while

submerged

in August 2000 the captain of this

remarkable vessel is 45 year old qunari

lyachin

he is a respected commander who is

00:05:19,680
happened on that day but it is possible

to reconstruct some of the events as

captain the action slowed to 8 knots he

prepared to launch a practice version of

the 6576 torpedo that Russian sailors

nicknamed fatty or the fat girl

the fat-girl torpedo weighs 9,000 pounds

and is propelled by kerosene fuel but to

move this enormous weapon at high speeds

the energy supplied to the motor by the

kerosene must receive an immense boost

by being force-fed huge amounts of

oxygen the oxygen has supplied by a

simple but highly 00:06:40,280
powerful chemical both the British and

American Navy has introduced peroxide

torpedoes at the end of World War two

but by the 1960s both navies abandoned

peroxide as too dangerous

peroxide powered torpedoes required

ongoing and highly skilled maintenance

such maintenance can be demanding in the

most well-funded navies in the Russian

Navy of 2000 peroxide torpedoes were

accidents waiting to happen

later review of records indicated the

peroxide fueled weapon that went into

00:07:49,839
into the torpedo room

the massive fireball raced through the

first compartments killing all in its

path probably including captain Lee

auction

within seconds temperatures in the

torpedo room soared to 5,000 degrees

until at least four torpedo warheads

exploded with the force of five tons of

TNT the blast obliterated the front of

the cushion slowly the great ship headed

down by the bow until she settled on the

bottom

00:09:08,339
marvels the explosions aboard the Kursk

illustrate the principle that when human

lives are at stake

need immediate help from wherever source

international from experts around the

world from other governments that is no

time to be hiding to be evasive to be

attempting to salvage a reputation

[Music]

August 12 2000 sometime afternoon four

of the rear compartments of course cap

survived the terrible explosions of that

morning in the red glow of emergency

lighting survivors help each other

toward the last compartment or the air

will soon become a stale atmosphere

rapidly filling with carbon dioxide they

are alive but the cramped space in which

they now huddle is miserable

it's extremely cold it's extremely dark

they're very frightened and they

probably got the feeling in the back of

their mind that no one knows that it's

happened to them like all modern Serbs

00:10:53,958
shafts go through the hull to the

propellers with no forward movement the

pressure has water shooting in around

the shaft but it isn't drowning that

threatens the map the problem wouldn't

have been the water coming into the

submarine is the fact that the the water

would would cause the pressure to rise

as water fills the compartment the

remaining air surrounding the men would

be compressed into higher and higher

pressure in any escape attempt

nitrogen 00:11:56,180
he manages to find paper and writes to

his wife

Olga I love you please don't be too

upset it's 1316 all the crew from

sections 6 7 and 8 have moved to section 9

there are 23 of us here we have made

this decision because none of us can

escape

the problem with the survivors decision

to stay is that no one on the surface is

taking any action to come to their aid

on board his flagship Peter the Great a

commander of the Northern Fleet Admiral

Vishwa Popov is aware of course kis

overdue to check in now he's told two

explosions have been picked up by sonar

as an X sub marine er Popov knows

something terrible has happened to Kursk

he also knows that as the fleet

commander he would take a great deal of

the blame in the tradition of the

Russian military his immediate reaction

on this day is to do nothing

many people say that one of the greatest

weaknesses of the Russian Northup leet

in fact of the Russian armed forces is

the flow of information very few people

have an incentive to pass bad news up

the chain of command

Popov finally notifiers the high command

but it is not until 12 hours after the

sinking that an emergency is declared

[Music]

the Northern Fleet has 00:14:06,240
are hopelessly outdated and will allow

only a short time to attempt the rescue

in spite of the limitations the crew of

the priests come close to locking on to

the course but their attempts fail and

they are forced to return to the surface

to recharge batteries it is sadly

apparent that the little Russian sub is

not equipped to bring the men of course

back to the surface they were well

manned by very professional 00:15:07,269
to ask for help for over 40 years the

British and American navies had been

Russia's opponents in the game of the

Cold War

to rush to ask Western Navy's for help

now is more than the pride of Russian

Admirals can accept some individuals who

are still you know thinking that you

know they're still spying on us they're

still practicing with us as their as

their enemy etc etc this is not a good

time for us to get all kissy faced

what's 00:16:10,600
half tons and she can carry a 16 rescue

ease and she has a crew of three and

she's developed to go to depths of up to

400 meters the lr5 submersible is

similar to the russian pries but

possesses much more advanced technology

using sophisticated sonar the lr5 can be

maneuvered to the escape hatch of a

stricken sub up to 1,200 feet down

unlike the Russian vessel lr5 can

approach the stricken submarine from

almost any angle 00:17:16,060
industry has perfected the technique of

saturation diving the technique allows

divers to work at deep ocean pressure

down to a thousand feet then returned to

the surface without experiencing the

bends to do this divers are placed in

chambers which increase the pressure on

their bodies until it equals that of the

ocean floor the divers are then lowered

to the bottom by a diving bell

when they have finished work for the day

00:18:20,659
passing the Russians have failed in

their rescue attempts the odds are

increasingly against the 23 trapped

survivors

the courage of the men in that

compartment as witnessed by the notes

that were recovered that they had

written to their families was absolutely

heroic I don't know how he did it inside

the dark and cold coffin of the ninth

compartment the surviving men are left

with only flashlights the gasp for

breath as oxygen disappears Dmitriy

Kalashnikov writes again 00:19:39,409
marvels the cursed disaster is only one

in a long line of cases of misuse and

under respect of explosive materials

there's the explosion at the New London

Texas school district the main school

building in 1937 where just after school

almost three hundred adults and children

were caught up in the explosion of

natural gas and the second case that

comes to mind is Texas City Texas where

the 00:20:38,230
is on vacation at the Black Sea when

coast goes to the bottom he is not told

of the accident until almost a day later

he accepts advise to remain on holiday

it is a decision he will regret

in England on this day Commodore David

Russell is the duty officer in charge of

submarines for the Royal Navy when he is

told of the course

I think the first reaction was a

submariner that I had that there was

00:21:34,380
Russell begins to set wheels in motion

to come to the aid of possible survivors

he loads the lr5 aboard a huge Antonov

cargo jet which will carry the rescue

submersible to Norway there it will

rendezvous with the mothership the

Normand pioneer you'd go with what can

and you get it to to Norway put it on

board the mothership and send the ship

towards Russian waters because you can

always 00:22:39,399
and oxygen are being supplied

it is poignant to think that as they

were dying there in the ninth

compartment their families are sure were

being comprehensively lied to by the

Admirals for those 23 men were serving

if got even as hours turned today's

media pressure at home and international

a begins to build for President Putin to

intervene in Kursk operations it is no

longer the dark Soviet days of

restricted press now reporters want to

know why Putin is still on holiday and

why the names of 00:23:47,409
first things requested our divers to go

down to the course to see if they can

get any response from inside the vessel

the call for help goes to sport a

Norwegian and British underwater

construction company

industry one of the first goals they

make mr. diver Tony Scott

then when the phone call came from stole

offshore never because it they just said

it deep diving job in north and always I

knew what it was because you know it's

expecting something 00:24:53,480
are not quick to provide such

information it is clear that they are

stalling the British rescue team heads

toward the Kursk knowing little more

than what has appeared in the press as

the British ships team north at full

speed Russia's Deputy Prime Minister

ilya klebanov meets with the families

and attempts to dodge responsibility for

the accident without any evidence he

claims the course was sunk by an

American submarine

Nadezhda 00:26:07,990
19th 11:30 a.m. the Normand pioneer

arrives at the site of the accident

hopes are high the Kursk is a huge ship

a sealed compartment would hold a large

quantity of air perhaps enough that men

could still be alive but the English and

Norwegian rescue team is greeted with a

shock when Russian Admirals arrive for a

meeting

Russian search-and-rescue commander

Admiral Gennady Viraj amazingly tows

Commodore Russell that the lr5 will have

to stay miles away from the course the

rescue team begins to wonder 00:26:59,769
because that's what the book said and

you'd want them to continue until there

was absolutely no chance the British and

Norwegian team the best hope for rescue

is at last on the scene but it appears

they will not be allowed to give the men

of course that one last chance for

survival the US Navy's first use of a

rescue craft occurred after the sinking

of the squalus in 1939 modern marvels

00:28:06,628
day after traveling over 1500 miles the

lr5 and its crew are now forced to sit

helplessly miles from the Kursk Russian

Admiral Gennady Viraj won't admit it but

he has never wanted foreigners involved

in the course of tragedy he just wants

to get the situation resolved good or

bad but without foreigners dead guys

equals not so great but dead guys with

foreigners equals 00:29:08,069
cold pitch dark world of the ocean floor

to maintain body heat at this depth hot

water is constantly pumped into his suit

was a very big prominent white painted

ring around the hatch and that came into

view you know I had imagined it to be a

rounded shape and you might have to

clean on two entire self off but you

just might it was just like staying on

top of the buildings a bit after a few

minutes dive supervisors above passed

the word it is 00:30:28,740
for the slightest response sadly there

is no answer

but the lack of response to the tapping

still doesn't rule out the chance of

life inside not having gained any

response that didn't necessarily mean

there was nobody alive you know they

could have been unconscious they could

have been in stupor or coma whatever the

priority for the divers now shifts to

finding out if the compartment below is

flooded the 00:31:37,219
whether you've you're sucking the water

in or whether there's no suction and

therefore inside and outside of equal

pressure if the chamber below is dry

water around the valve will be sucked in

word because the ocean pressure is so

much greater if the chamber below is

flooded the pressure is equal and no

water will move the difference is

critical the problem is it is almost

impossible to observe the water's

movement the engineers aboard the Seaway

00:32:40,399
the survivors but the lower hatch will

have to be opened a special wrench is

manufactured aboard the Eagle and sent

down to the divers the Russians asked us

to open the hatch so we sent the hatch

doggin mechanism to the open position

but still the hatch didn't drop open

[Music]

although not yet fully opened the lower

hatch seal has now been cranked bubbles

pulse around the seal from the

compartment below they cause some

confusion until someone realizes it is

00:34:32,389
to float above the dead submarine it

didn't feel we could have done anything

better than we did it's about the only

comfort there is it's different it's

that perhaps that it may just be that

out of these tragic circumstances comes

a little bit of hope for the future all

attempts to rescue the men of course

have failed but the impact of this

disaster on a grieving Russia is not

over

energetic oxygen containing chemicals

have been implicated in non submarine

accidents also including the crash of

ValuJet flight 592 00:35:51,699
arrives in VDI both the home port of the

sub to meet with the families of the

dead crew he pledges that curse will be

raised and the bodies of their loved

ones retrieved

although Putin's pledge is well received

by the grieving families accomplishing

the faith will be an enormous

technological challenge to Dutch

companies are contracted to take on the

immense job of retrieving the great sub

work begins 11 months after the accident

00:36:54,699
explosive and I have been divers killed

by explosions by cutting into things due

to the build-up of the gases once the

bow of course has been cut off a huge

barge appropriately-named giant is towed

from Holland and positioned over the Sun

giant is equipped with 26 heavy cables

each capable of lifting 900 tons

divers begin cutting holes into the site

of course with powerful Jets of abrasive

sand

after weeks of work each of the cables

on 00:38:08,880
ocean going tugs and begin to tow the

barge and it's grim cargo to awaiting

drydock in Murmansk as course leaves the

scene of its death

divers place a marble tombstone on the

floor of the sea

suspended beneath the barge Kursk is at

last towed into position in the drydock

on October 23rd 2001 water is drained

and the face of the great submarine once

00:39:24,510
compartment of course was equipped with

canisters holding potassium superoxide a

chemical was used to scrub the air of

carbon dioxide and replace oxygen

unfortunately if potassium superoxide

touches water it reacts violently

releasing great heat at some time one of

the struggling survivors probably

dropped one of these canisters it's heat

and high oxygen content would have

turned the oily water into a blowtorch

those who didn't die in the fire

suffocated when the last of the oxygen

was consumed by 00:40:34,659
afford not only the technology of their

torpedoes but that of their rescue

vessels had been allowed to fail by a

system that diluted itself into thinking

it was still a superpower

the tragedy of course reminds the world

that arrogance and pride can be killers

when mixed with high technology I

believe that history is going to view it

as the last dramatic event of the Cold

War those guys died 00:41:38,710
who had refused to allow lr5 to even

enter the water was fired Admiral Popov

who had resisted taking action as men

died was relieved of command one of the

lists of models in ilya klebanov the

deputy premier who had steadfastly

insisted Kursk had been sunk by an

American submarine was fired

but managed atelic who had screamed in

rage at klebanov became a hero to all

who dream of being able to criticize

00:42:52,000
paused to bury and grieve for the men

who died aboard Kursk they had given

their lives to Mother Russia not on a

battlefield but in a submarine made

dangerous by outmoded equipment poor

maintenance and shoddy standards but the

deaths of the men of course marked a

very real precedent in Russia's evolving

democracy

it revealed a shift in the way Russia's

people respond to the deceit and

manipulation of their government we

often talk about how the curse submarine

is a metaphor for 00:43:57,818
with an undying example of dedication

patriotism and courage