Vyacheslav Milashevsky (center), commander of the rescueed crew of
the AS-28 captain-lieutenant, after the successful end of saving operation
of the bathyscaphe at coast of Kamchatka Photo: Valery
Melnikov
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They Make It to the Shore
// Russian submariners have
been saved by the British Fleet
Elevation
The operation
rescuing the Priz mini-submarine, which sank August 4 carrying
seven men, terminated yesterday in Berezovaya Bay in the
Pacific Ocean. Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov went to the scene to
find that British rescuers managed to cut loose the vehicle snarled
in undersea cables. Kommersant
correspondent Oleg Kashin watched the rescue relief in Kamchatka
with the sailors relatives.
No one knows the name of
the woman who called the local Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Radio 3
station on Friday morning saying she is the wife of a submariner
(but she did not mention her name) and reported that the AS-28 Priz
mini-submarine with seven sailors abroad was in distress in
Berezovaya Bay. Later it turned out that that one of men was
civilian, deputy of the chief designer of Nizhny Novgorod Lazurit
Central Design Bureau Gennady Polonin. The information was aired on
the radio, a few hours later a source in the staff of the task force
and troops of North-East of Russia stationed in the peninsula
confirmed the information to the local press. From this moment on,
this information was no longer a secret, and Deputy
Commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy Mikhail Zakharenko, who had
arrived on Kamchatka Thursday from Moscow, could no longer pretend
that his trip was just scheduled fact-finding and shunned the press.
All the staff of the force was also ordered to refrain from
answering any questions of civilians flocking
Kamchatka.
However, the staff of the 70076 military unit (the
rescue squad which owns Georgy Kozmin vessel with two vehicles of
the Priz type abroad) treated the order in quite a formal way, to
put it mildly. At the staff headquarters (an ordinary two-storey
building on the shore of Avachinskaya Bay without any fencing), I
was met by an officer on the watch who engaged me in the
conversation about the sunken vehicle.
Youre a journalist,
arent you? Came to write about the second Kursk? he asked me
lighting a cigarette. Leave Kursk alone, its not Kursk
yet.
The officer told me that Vladimir Cheremokhin, captain
of the second rank and the commander of the 28 sub, had went on
vacation a few days before the incident:
He did it right, he
is a robust guy he would need the oxygen for seven men.
The
commander was summoned to the staff right after the accident and he
is now waiting for instructions. Captain Lieutenant Vyacheslav
Milashevsky, 25, commanded the vehicle in the absence of
Cheremokhin. He is the son of Captain Lieutenant Vladimir
Milashevsky who commanded the AS-28 from the moment of its
construction in the same 1989. Elena, Vyacheslavs wife, said she
was caught off the guard by the news at dacha with her 2-year-old
twin daughters Sasha and Nastya. She rushed to Petropavlovsk but did
not find the strength to go home.
We have just moved in
there, Elena Milashevskaya says. There are Slavas still unpacked
things, and there a big model of the bathyscaphe in the living-room
he carved from wood. I cant be there now.
Lena stayed
during the rescue relief at her elder sisters Svetlana in the same
neighborhood of Zavoyko, Petropavlovsk suburb, which is made up of a
few dozens of shabby five-storeyed buildings and a shop called
Canadian Bread scatted on bald mountains. Zavoyko is mainly
inhabited by submarine officers and their families. Lena is talking
to me lying in the bed: after another news program she went into
hysterics, an ambulance car arrived and a doctor made her an
injection. Lena is too anxious because her husbands father,
Milashevsky Sr., told her he had calculated that the air in Priz
would have run out on Saturday midnight. Lena believes the words of
her father-in-law because she has no one else to believe in, because
no one cares about them.
They say on the telly that
physiologists are working with the families, the woman is crying.
Where are they? No one has visited me yet.
Slava was to
leave in late August for Nizhny Novgorod on detachment for Krasnoye Sormovo plant where the AS-28t vehicle
was to go under repairs. It was in an emergency state, it has not
been repaired for so many years, the woman says. This is just the
first breakdown that was reported. The wiring went on fire there
there are so many things in emergency state there.
Lena
breaks down again, the doctor made an injection for her, she lays
down on the bed and keeps on recounting how the husband called her
on the Navy Day saying he had been awarded a merit certificate for
good settings afloat from the commander and how he longed to join
them at the dacha but he was summoned to the service again and never
came back. She recollects that she was dreaming the Thursday night
that she had lost her wedding ring and there was another, somebody
elses and ugly one on her finger. I was screaming in my sleep:
take it away, thats not my ring, Lena says. I remembered in the
morning that this kind of dream brings a big trouble.
It was
only early morning that a psychologist from the Department of the
Moral Welfare of the Forces came to Lena. He calmed me down
well, the woman was telling me Sunday noon. The first thing he
told me was: well, I think, they will run out of air, everyone will
die. And then he added saying goodbye to me: pray, you have nothing
else left to do.
The psychologists visit, however, took
Lena out of hysterics. She was no longer crying and only called the
staff of the force every couple of minutes. The staff seemed to have
more important things to do: Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov arrived
in Petropavlovsk Sunday morning.
The minister went from the
airport to the staff for an extraordinary meeting. Later, with three
cameramen he sailed to the site of the accident on Razliv small-size
missile ship. British rescuers with the underwater remotely operated
Scorpio vehicle had already been working on the scene for a few
hours. Americans came some time later and started unloading
equipment in Petropavlovsks port when the meeting started. After
Mr. Ivanovs ships was gone to the sea, the American had just
started loading. The Priz 29 (the vehicle was lately out of order
and was onboard only as a model in case of checks) was taken off
Georgy Kozmin standing by the berth, and the crew started loading
American Scorpios. US Assistant Naval Attaché Bill Hamlet, who had
arrived from Moscow a few days before, commanded the operation. Mr.
Hamlet was gloomy. Under the most optimistic forecasts, the loading
was to take five hours, while the British had already cut two of
five cables trapped in the mini-submarines screw.
Americans
were late, they were, Andrey Yuryevich, the second assistant to the
captain of Georgy Kozmin told me. Then he suddenly realized that I
was a journalist: No help can be unnecessary. It is indeed military
fraternity
Meanwhile, Americans went onboard to have
lunch. We need to feed our friends, a navigator said shyly. As
for us, we have been living on coffee for two days without any food
or sleep.
The entire city filled with enthusiasm once the
minister headed for the scene of the accident. If he went there,
everything is fine. We would not have gone to pose at the background
of the dead, officers at the staff speculated. Lena Milashevskaya,
who I visited while waiting for the minister, no longer recollected
the forecast of her experienced father-in-law but was thinking how
she was going to welcome her husband. If they dont let me in to
the hospital thats OK! When I was pregnant, he would climb to my
ward by the fire-escape to the third floor, so will I now! I will
put on whites, put on mustaches but will get in. Now the wife of
Captain Lieutenant Milashevsky was worried about foreigners saving
the crew, He does not like them. He is such a racist, Slava, he
respects only Russians, she said.
The staff from Razliv
reported at about 4 pm that after four cables had been cut, British
Scorpio broke down. The operation was dragging out one more time. A
new report came a few minutes later saying the vehicle had been
repaired and the last cable had been cut off, the bathyscaphe was
ordered to make an emergency emersion. They have surfaced. Everyone
is safe and sound. They got out of hatches on their own, a report
followed a few minutes later.
Kamchatkas governor Mikhail
Mashkovtsev was the first to come to the berth of the former naval
station to meet the saved crew. He was nervously smoking Marlboro
mint. When I came up to him, he brightened up: it was evident that
the governor was afraid to get lost amidst organizers of the
operations which he had in essence nothing to do with. Yes, I had
some sleep, he confessed. Both yesterday and today. What was there
else left for me to do? I was getting news about everything though
the TV. Dont you believe me? Well, then from the journalists who
were learning news from the telly and them would call me. Mr.
Mashkovtev added that the president kept an eye on the operation and
gave a sigh again inhaling the mint smoke. Of course, Vladimir
Vladimirovich has not called me. But my assistants called asking how
things were Im an atheist but I was praying these days. Not at
church, but at home. As the Scripture says one must pray not for
other people to see but in private. He also promised to reward all
participants of the rescue relief. I have known it for a long time
that a merit certificate from the governor is more important for
many people than any material benefits. But if someone of the crew
needs a flat, we will give it to them. We are now letting
newly-elected building in Rybachye [village on the other shore of
the bay].
The crew of Razliv appeared. It turned out that the
defense minister came back on his own, without the crew of Priz.
Going down the ship ladder Sergey Ivanov was no longer that
strung-up as a few hours before when the ship had been leaving the
berth. I would like to congratulate all Russians, the minister
started solemnly with his hands behind his back. The Priz nuclear
vehicle has been covered 200 meters of depth for three minutes of
emergency emersion to surface today at 4.19 pm 30 seconds, Kamchatka
time.
Someone asked what would happen to the crew, Are they
going to be awarded or punished? Its a very silly question,
Ivanov snapped without turning to the journalist, and carried on,
British Scorpio worked six hours on end. The guidance was carried
out by Russian underwater vehicles called Tiger [as a matter of
fact, two Tigers were purchased in Britain by the Russian Defense
Ministry in 2000 in the wake of the Kursk tragedy]. The largest
cable that had to be cut off was, probably, poachers. Following
the order, Mr. Ivanov said, the bathyscaphe was surfacing for a few
minutes, and then the crew made their decision to blow the forebody
of the vehicle, after which Priz finally surfaced. The crew opened
the hatch on their own, they said they did not need medical aid and
went onboard of Alagez rescue vessel, the minister made a pause and
then added with a hesitation. Today was the toughest day, everyone
showed their worth, including the British. Answering the question
who made the decision to admit foreign rescuers to the region of the
secret underwater radio-locating station, Mr. Ivanov said that the
Naval Commander-in-Chief Office was in charge of
everything.
It is symbolic that as soon as we lifted the
vehicle the sun appeared in the sky and when we started off, killer
whales swam aside, the minister concluded saying the crew would
arrive on Alagez vessel at the harbor of the Bogorodskoye Lake in
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky an hour and a half after him.
The
submariners, in fact, were already landing from Mozoz missile ship
by the Bodorodskoye Lake. There were six of them, the commander of
the division, captain of the second rank Valery Lepetyukhin left on
Alagez where his wife Svetlana works as a doctor. The submariners
were dressed in sailor fatigues just like sailors on Moroz but they
were easy to spot as they swaggered on the deck looking somewhere
beyond.
Vyacheslav Milashevsky was the first to come ashore.
He was really looking like a teenager, not quite a captain
lieutenant. He wend down the ladder looking past the welcomers
holding his hand by his head: it was hard to understand who he was
saluting to.
I had some time to say hello to Vyacheslav from
his wife and he thanked me, after which crew members were
immediately taken by two ambulances to the hospital. The cars were
passing past the sailors relatives who were standing by the road.
Wives and mothers were crying trying to catch up with the mini-bus,
but in vain. The entrance to the territory of the hospital was
blocked by marines. Cars of the relatives were allowed to pass to
the hospital only after the submarines had been put to wards.
Members of the rescue team told the families that the crew had been
starving the last day: they were running out of food, they had only
a few biscuits left that they distributed for all.
Elena
Milashevskaya is now afraid that her husband will be pronounced the
culprit. My husband will be held responsible! You will see that
neither commander-in-chief, nor any commanders will be answering for
that Only he will because he is young and inexperienced! They will
lay all the blame on him! It is his seventh emersion, though They
have claws [manipulator] at the sub and it is a kind of mastership
when sailors put on a bottle, take it by these claws without
smashing it. He would practice it nights long. He told me, Lena,
what if something happens to the sub? He smashed so many bottles
first. But he learnt after all!
&
List of SurvivorsValery
Lepetyukha, captain of the second rank and commander of detached
division of emergency rescue service; Vyacheslav
Milashevsky, captain lieutenant and acting commander of the Priz
AS-28 submersible; Alexander Ivanov, senior
lieutenant; Sergey Belozerov, senior warrant
officer; Anatoly Popov, senior warrant officer and
navigator of AS-28; Alexander Uybin, warrant
officer; Gennady Bolonin, deputy chief designer of
Lazurit Central Design Bureau.
Two Days Under and Above WaterAugust
69 a.m. (0.00 a.m., all times are in Kamchatka
time, Moscow time is indicted in brackets) Attempts to tow the AS-28
to shallower water, another of underwater sonar communication
session with the crew. 10:35 a.m. (1:35 a.m.) Air
temperature in the vehicle rises to 10 degrees
Celsius. 12:10 a.m. (3:10 a.m.) The AS-28 is
towed. 6:22 p.m. (9:22 a.m.) UK Air Force plane
carrying the Scorpio-45 rescue vessel lands at Elizo airport at
Kamchatka. 6:39 p.m. (9:39 a.m.) A U.S. Air Force
plane with Super Scorpio remotely operated vehicles arrives at
Elizovo. 10:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m.) A meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with defense and
law enforcement agencies is over in Moscow, after which Defense
Minister Sergey Ivanov urgently departs for
Kamchatka. August 70:55 a.m. (3:55 pm,
August 6 in Moscow) Another communication session with the
bathyscaphes crew. The condition of sailors is
satisfactory. 1:24 a.m. (4:24 p.m.) A first stage of
the rescue operation starts in the Berezovaya Bay. The Navy loops
cables under the Priz. 3:40 a.m. (6:40 p.m.) The
KIL-27 vessel with British rescue equipment leaves
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for the area of the
operation. 8:14 a.m. (11:14 p.m.) Sergey Ivanov
arrives in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. 9:30 a.m. (0:30
a.m. August 7, Moscow time) The KIL-27 arrives to the site of the
rescue operation, British specialists start installing
equipment. 11:40 a.m. (2:40 a.m.) The crew is ordered
to get ready for the emergency emersion by underwater sonar
communication. 10:50 a.m. (1:50 a.m.) The crew begins
lowering the Scorpio-45. 11:13 a.m. (2:13 a.m.)
Cameras of Scorpion-45 record the Russian sub. 12:05
a.m. (3:05 a.m.) Scorpio-45 starts cutting away metal cables
that were trapping the AS-28. 12:25 a.m. (3:25 a.m.)
Scorpion-45 is surfaced for small repairs after which the rescue
operation continues. 2:35 p.m. (5:35 a.m.) The last
cable has been cut off. The AS-28 is fully freed from fishing
nets. 4:23 p.m. (7:23 a.m.) The main ballast of the
Russian sub is being blown. 4:26 p.m. (7:26 a.m.) The
AS-28 surfaces. The submariners go onboard of Alagez salvage
vessel. 10:00 p.m. (1:00 p.m.) The crew of AS-28 are
taken to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
What Trapped PrizThe Shore-Based Listening
System of Long-Range Detection of Underwater Vehicles has been
developed at St. Petersburg Morfizpribor Central Research Institute
in 60s under the code name of Agam unit. Doctor of Engineering
Yakov Karlik was the projects chief engineer. The system is
a complex of low-frequency receive antennae (planar antenna arrays).
Each 100x7.5 m. antenna contains 2,400 submarine detectors (two
vertical rows with 10 items). Submarine detectors and a part of
electronic data processing equipment are placed on a special
supporting construction which ensures the towing of an antenna, its
installation in the prearranged position (usually at the depth of
200 m., 15 m off the bottom, 25 km. offshore) and the surfacing. The
antenna is kept at the bottom with the help of two anchors weighting
60 metric tons each. The supporting construction also holds two
omni-directional submarine detectors that control the situation in
the area of the antenna. The data from Agam antenna is
transmitted to shore-based posts by two SPEK-4 small capacity cables
that also provide the listening system with electricity. Agam
complex is stationed along the coast of Kamchatka to control the
movement of submarines (primarily American) in the Pacific Ocean.
The system is also used for ocean research. The information
on the listening system of long-range detection of underwater
vehicles first appeared in media in August 2000 when one of antenna
sections of Agam, torn off by the storm, got drifted to the shore of
Japan, where it was first taken for a Russian submarine. The section
was later returned to Russia. American global submarine detection
SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System) is Agams Western analogue which
embraces virtually all the world ocean, unlike the Russian one.
The One That Saved PrizScorpio-45
remote-controlled underwater vehicle is owned by the British Defense
Ministry and is given to the operation of James Fisher Rumic
company. It was built in 1990 and is now stationed at Renfru base in
Scotland. It is designed to be used when the work of a diver is too
dangerous or obstructed due to the great depth. Its length is 2.75
m., height 1.8 m., width 1.8 m, weight 1.4 metric tons. The
maximum dive depth is over 925 meters (restricted by the control
cable), its carrying capacity is up to 100 kg. The maximum speed is
4 knots (reverse movement 3.25 knots, side 2.5 knots). The
operation group is six people. The vehicle is equipped with six
250-Watt valves, three video cameras and two manipulators, one of
which can be equipped with cutting tools. Scorpion-45 also has two
sonars, a wire telephone, a radiation sensor and a sound locator.
The vehicle can be used for the laying of the site of an accident
with navigation beacons. The vehicle and its control consol
are easily transported by air. It is launched by hoists of
mother-ship and a special A-shaped floating crane. The
vehicles cost is about £600,000 (some $1.1 million). More advanced
vehicles of the next generation, like Super Scorpio, cost some $1.9
million.
Oleg Kashin, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 08, 2005
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