The largest accidents on Soviet and Russian nuclear submarines

On the night of February 4, 2009, two nuclear-armed nuclear-powered missile submarines, the British HMS Vanguard and the French Le Triomphant, collided at great depths in the Atlantic Ocean. Both had approximately 250 crew members and 16 intercontinental ballistic missiles each.

The British ship lost speed, surfaced and was towed to the pier of the naval base Faslane in Scotland. The French reached Brest on their own.

The next day, the London Sun newspaper commented on this incident: “The possible consequences are even hard to imagine. It is unlikely that the collision caused a nuclear explosion, but there could be a radiation leak, a senior source in the British Navy told the newspaper. “Worse, we could lose crew and nuclear warheads. It would be a national disaster."

Alas, collisions of giant nuclear-powered ships full of nuclear warheads in combat service in the ocean in recent decades are not such a rarity. Moreover, such dangerous accidents, fraught with unpredictable consequences, occur more and more often. The reason: submarines of all countries of the world are becoming more and more quiet, they are hardly detected by sonar nuclear-powered ships of a potential enemy. Or they are found at such distances when it is too late to do anything for a safe divergence at depth.

Little of. In peacetime, the essence of the combat service of multi-purpose submarines of all the fleets of the world often consists precisely in continuous and, if possible, multi-day tracking of strategic nuclear submarines of a potential enemy. At the same time, the task is formulated extremely simply: in the event of a sudden outbreak of war, an enemy submarine must be destroyed by torpedoes before it has time to open the hatch covers of its mines with intercontinental ballistic missiles and strike from under the water. But at the same time, in the depths of the ocean, the boats are forced to pursue one another at a distance of only a few cable lengths (1 cable length - 185.2 m.) Is it strange that at the same time, nuclear-powered ships sometimes collide?

Here are five of the most dangerous incidents in naval history:

1. On March 8, 1974, the Soviet diesel-electric submarine K-129 of project 629A with ballistic missiles on board sank in the North Pacific Ocean at a depth of approximately 5600 meters. The entire crew was killed - 98 people. The circumstances of her death are unknown. However, a number of domestic experts are confident that the cause of the disaster was a sudden collision with the American nuclear submarine Swordfish. She soon returned to her own base with serious damage to the hull. But the Pentagon tried to explain them by hitting an ice floe.

A member of the Submarine Club, Vladimir Evdasin, who previously served on K-129, has this version of the tragedy: “I think that shortly before the scheduled communication session on the night of March 8, 1968, K-129 surfaced and sailed on the surface. In the surface position on the bridge, in the fence of the felling, according to the regular schedule, three people climbed up and kept watch: the watch officer, the steering signalman and the “looking in the stern”. Since hydroacoustics lose control of the situation under water during the operation of diesel engines, they did not notice the noise of a maneuvering alien submarine. And she carried out transverse diving under the bottom of the K-129 at a critically dangerous distance and unexpectedly hooked the hull of our submarine with the wheelhouse. She overturned before she could even squeak a radio signal. Water rushed into the open hatch and air intake shaft, and soon the submarine fell to the bottom of the ocean.

2. November 15, 1969 US Navy nuclear submarine "Getow" in the Barents Sea at a depth of 60 meters collided with the Soviet nuclear submarine K-19, practicing combat exercises in one of the training grounds of the Northern Fleet. Moreover, until the moment of the accident, our sailors did not even suspect that the Americans were nearby and were tracking them. The Soviet crew was having breakfast when a powerful blow to the hull of the K-19 followed, moving at a speed of only 6 knots. The boat began to sink into the depths. The ship was saved by the competent actions of the senior on board Captain 1st Rank Lebedko, who immediately ordered to go full speed, blow out the ballast and shift the horizontal rudders to the ascent.

A huge cylindrical dent was found in the base in the bow of the K-19. But only years later it turned out that this was a mark from the Getow, which was covertly spying on the Soviet ship.

As it turned out, the command of the US Navy did everything to hide its involvement in the incident. The fact is that the accident occurred 5.5 km from Kildin Island, that is, in the territorial waters of the USSR, where foreign ships are prohibited from entering by international law. Therefore, in the documents on combat patrols of the Getow, it was recorded that she allegedly returned from combat patrols to the base two days before the collision. And only on July 6, 1975, the New York Times wrote what really happened.

3. June 24, 1970 in the Sea of Okhotsk at 04.57 at a depth of 45 meters, the Soviet nuclear submarine K-108 of project 675 collided with the US Navy nuclear submarine Totog. As a result of a strong impact on the K-108, the emergency protection of the reactors on both sides worked. The boat lost its course and began to quickly fall into the depths with a large trim on the bow. However, the commander of the ship, Captain 1st Rank Baghdasaryan, prevented the catastrophe by energetic measures. K-108 surfaced. Her right screw was jammed, so tugboats had to be called.

4. On May 23, 1981, at one of the training grounds of the Northern Fleet near the Kola Bay, the Soviet strategic nuclear submarine of the Northern Fleet K-211 of project 667 BDR Kalmar (from 1984 to 2010 - as part of the Pacific Fleet) collided with an American nuclear-powered ship Sturgeon class. The commission of the General Staff of the USSR Navy, which investigated the incident, came to the conclusion that the Americans were covertly following our nuclear submarine, being in its stern course angles in the acoustic shadow. When K-211 changed course, the pursuers lost sight of the Soviet nuclear-powered ship and blindly crashed into its stern with a wheelhouse.

Both ships reached their bases on their own. K-211 - in Gadzhiyevo, where she was docked. At the same time, during the inspection of our nuclear-powered ship, holes were found in two stern tanks of the main ballast, damage to the blades of the right propeller and horizontal stabilizer. In the damaged tanks of the main ballast, countersunk bolts, pieces of metal and plexiglass from the cabin of an American submarine were found.

And the heavily dented "American" in a submerged position had to "stomp" in Holy Loch (Britain). There it was impossible to hide a huge dent in his wheelhouse.

5. On February 11, 1992, the Soviet nuclear submarine of the Northern Fleet K-276 project 945 "Barracuda" (commander - captain 2nd rank Loktev) was in the combat training area near the coast of the Rybachy Peninsula at a depth of 22.8 meters. The actions of our sailors were secretly observed by the crew of the nuclear submarine "Baton Rouge" of the "Los Angeles" type of the US Navy. Moreover, this "American" was above our ship - at a depth of 15 meters.

At some point, the Baton Rouge acoustics lost sight of the Soviet ship. As it turned out, they were prevented by the noise of the propellers of five fishing boats that happened to be nearby. To understand the situation, the commander of "Baton Rouge" ordered to emerge to the periscope depth. But on K-276, where they did not suspect that a potential enemy was nearby, the time came for a communication session with the fleet headquarters, and there they also shifted the horizontal rudders to ascent. The Barracuda, which rushed upwards, crashed into an American nuclear-powered ship. Only the low speed of the K-276 allowed the American crew to avoid death.

This time everything was so obvious that the Pentagon was forced to admit the violation of the territorial waters of our country.

April 7 is a special day in Russia - the Day of Remembrance of the Fallen Submariners. It is celebrated in memory of all the dead sailors of the submarine fleet, and the immediate reason for setting the date on April 7 was the tragedy that occurred on this day in 1989 in the Norwegian Sea. Then the combat nuclear submarine K-278 "Komsomolets" crashed. Of the 69 crew members of the submarine, 42 were killed.

The submariner is a heroic profession. Unfortunately, its specificity is such that, going to sea, officers, midshipmen, foremen, sailors of submarines do not know if they will see their relatives and friends again. The history of the Soviet and Russian submarine fleet is not only achievements, more and more advanced submarines and military victories. These are human losses, thousands of submariners who did not return from combat missions both in wartime and in peacetime.

So, from 1955 to 2014. only six nuclear submarines sank - 4 Soviet and 2 Russian (although K-27 was sunk for disposal, but before that the boat had a serious accident, which later became the reason for the decision to sink it).

The Soviet nuclear submarine "K-27" was launched in 1962 and received the nickname "Nagasaki" among the sailors. On May 24, 1968, the K-27 submarine was in the Barents Sea. The crew of the boat carried out a check of the parameters of the main power plant in running modes after performing work on the modernization of equipment. At this time, the power of the reactor began to decline, and the sailors tried to raise it. At 12:00, a release of radioactive gases occurred in the reactor compartment. The crew dropped the emergency protection of the left reactor. The radiation situation on the boat worsened. The accident led to serious consequences for the crew. All sailors of the boat were irradiated, 9 crew members died - one sailor suffocated in a gas mask on board the boat, eight people died later in the hospital from the effects of radiation doses received on board the boat. In 1981 the boat was scrapped in the Kara Sea.

April 12, 1970, exactly 47 years ago, in the Bay of Biscay, 490 km from the Spanish coast, K-8, the Soviet nuclear submarine of project 627A "Kit", sank. The K-8 boat was commissioned into the USSR Navy on March 2, 1958, and launched on May 31, 1959. Like other nuclear submarines of the first generation, the K-8 was not perfect - it often had accidents associated with various equipment failures. For example, on October 13, 1960, a cooling circuit pipe burst in one of the reactors, a coolant leak occurred, as a result of which the crew received various doses of radiation. On June 1, 1961, a similar incident occurred again, as a result of which one of the crew members had to be commissioned with acute radiation sickness. On October 8, 1961, the accident happened again.

Vsevolod Bessonov, commander of the nuclear submarine "K-8".

However, despite the attempts of the crew to save the boat, K-8 sank within a short time. In total, 52 people died on the submarine. Thus, 46 crew members managed to escape. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 26, 1970, Captain 2nd Rank Vsevolod Borisovich Bessonov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The entire crew of the submarine received state awards. The death of K-8 and 52 sailors was the first such loss of the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet and opened the account for other similar tragedies.

The strategic nuclear submarine "K-219" was laid down in 1970 - the same year when the terrible accident occurred on the nuclear submarine "K-8". In 1971, the nuclear submarine was launched. During the fifteen years of service of a nuclear submarine, she has repeatedly encountered a wide variety of problems associated with nuclear missile launchers and missile silo covers. For example, already in 1973, the tightness of rocket shaft No. 15 was broken, as a result of which water began to flow into the shaft, which reacted with the propellant component. The resulting aggressive nitric acid damaged the fuel lines of the rocket and an explosion occurred. One member of the crew became his victim, and the missile silo was flooded. In January 1986, there was a problem with the launch of a missile during an exercise, which forced the boat to surface after launch and return to the surface of the naval base. Nevertheless, on September 4, 1986, the K-219 nuclear submarine set off on a trip to the US coast, where it was to carry out patrol duty with 15 nuclear missiles on board. The submarine cruiser was commanded by Captain 2nd Rank Igor Britanov. Before the K-219 went to sea, 12 officers of the submarine out of 32 were replaced. They had to go on a campaign with new senior assistant, assistant commander, commanders of missile and mine-torpedo warheads, head of the radio engineering service, commander of the electrical division, commanders of 4 compartments, ship doctor. In addition, 12 warrant officers out of 38 crew warrant officers were replaced, including two foremen of the BCH-2 missile teams. When the cruiser sank into the Barents Sea, a leak opened in missile silo No. 6. The officer in charge of missile weapons did not inform Britanov, commander of K-219, about this incident. It is likely that he was guided by considerations of his own career - he did not want to be responsible for the consequences of returning the boat to the naval base. Meanwhile, a malfunction in the missile silo had been known for a long time, but the higher command was not reported - the remark was removed by the flagship specialist of the division.

When the boat was between the UK and Iceland, it was detected by the US Navy's sonar systems. At the same time, K-219 made every effort not to be detected. On October 3, K-219 was discovered by the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Augusta, which was heading for the coast of the USSR - also to perform patrol functions. By this time, it was already necessary to pump out water from missile silo No. 6 twice a day. However, in the end, in the early morning of October 3, 1986, missile silo No. 6 completely depressurized and water poured into it. The officer in charge of missile weapons, Petrachkov, put forward his proposal - to surface to a depth of 50 meters, fill the missile silo with water, and then fire the missiles with an emergency start of sustainer engines. So he hoped to protect the rocket from destruction in the mine itself. However, there was not enough time, and the rocket exploded in the mine itself. The explosion destroyed the outer wall of the hull and the missile's warhead. Parts of it fell into the cruiser. The hole contributed to the rapid immersion of the ship to 300 meters - almost to the maximum allowable depth. After that, the cruiser commander decided to blow out the tanks in order to get rid of ballast water. Two minutes after the explosion, K-219 abruptly floated to the surface. The personnel left the missile compartment and battened down hermetic bulkheads. Thus, the boat was divided into halves - the command and torpedo compartments were isolated by an emergency missile compartment from other compartments - the medical, reactor, control and turbine compartments located in the stern of the ship.

In memory of the fallen submariners. The largest accidents on Soviet and Russian nuclear submarines The commander of the reactor compartment, senior lieutenant Nikolai Belikov, and 20-year-old special hold sailor Sergei Preminin (pictured) went to the reactor enclosure - they were about to lower the compensating grids. The temperature in the cell reached 70 °C, however, Senior Lieutenant Belikov nevertheless lowered three of the four bars, and only then fell unconscious. The sailor Preminin lowered the last fourth grate. But he could not go back - because of the pressure difference, neither he nor the sailors on the other side could open the hatch of the compartment. Preminin died, at the cost of his life preventing a nuclear explosion. It is noteworthy that then his feat was not appreciated on merit - the sailor was posthumously given the Order of the Red Star, and only in 1997, already in the post-Soviet period of Russian history, Sergei Preminin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.

K-219 established contact with the Soviet civilian refrigerator Fedor Bredikhin. In addition to the refrigerator, the Bakaritsa timber carrier, the Galileo Galilei tanker, the Krasnogvardeysk dry cargo ship and the Anatoly Vasilyev ro-ro ship approached the accident site. Then the US Navy ships arrived - the USNS Powhatan tug and the USS Augusta submarine. The command of the Soviet Navy decided to tow the K-219. There was a great danger that the boat, if left by its crew, would be captured by the US Navy. Due to the spread of poisonous gas, in the end, the Soviet command decided to evacuate the crew, but the commander of K-219 Britanov remained on the boat - to protect it from the possible penetration of the Americans with weapons in their hands. He was the last to leave the boat with a group of officers and secret documents - on a boat. As a result of the accident on K-219, 4 people died - the commander of the BCH-2, Captain 3rd Rank Alexander Petrachkov; armaments sailor Nikolai Smaglyuk; driver Kharchenko Igor; reactor engineer Sergey Preminin. Upon his return to the USSR, Igor Britanov was under investigation, then the charges against him were dropped, but he was fired from the ranks of the USSR Navy. A lot of articles have been written about the accident on K-219, various versions of the possible causes of the accident have been put forward and are being put forward. Without going into more detailed coverage of this issue, it should be noted that the sailors of the boat, at the cost of their lives, tried to correct the emergency situation that arose on the submarine. Eternal memory to them for this.

The Soviet submarine K-19 became the first nuclear submarine to crash.

Top 5 worst submarine accidents

K-19 received the nickname "Hiroshima" from sailors© wikimedia.org

Photo 1 of 14:© wikimedia.org

Exactly half a century ago, the first accident occurred on the nuclear submarine K-19, which sailors later called "Hiroshima".

Although the ship survived and was later repaired, its crew received a large dose of radiation, and eight sailors died in the throes of radiation sickness.

And after July 4, 1961, K-19 was not the only submarine to survive a major accident.

Over the next half century, sunken nuclear submarines contaminated the world's oceans with nuclear fuel.

And thanks to the Chinese submarine Ming III, a ghost submarine appeared in the sea.

K-19: the first accident at depth

The first Soviet missile carrier on the K-19 nuclear reactor went to the North Atlantic in 1961 to carry out training shooting ranges.

However, an emergency situation arose on board near Norway. The reactor cooling systems are out of order.

The sailors began to make a new cooling system. The radioactive background in the submarine increased catastrophically, due to which 42 sailors received a large dose of radiation.

A day after the accident, all crew members were evacuated, and the boat itself was towed to a military base for decontamination and repair.

During the day, 6 irradiated sailors died, and in the next few weeks, two more men died. The K-19 accident was the first submarine disaster in history.

Thresger: the first dead nuclear boat

The American nuclear submarine Thresher was lost during an unsuccessful strength test in 1963. The submarine was supposed to dive 360 meters underwater.

However, already at 270 meters the crew of the boat did not get in touch. As it turned out, the submarine did not pass the test and broke into several pieces.

129 people, including 16 officers, 96 crew members and 17 engineers who did not serve in the US Army, died.

Thresher became the first nuclear submarine to remain on the ocean floor. The number of those killed in the crash of this submarine remains a record to this day.

K-431: submarine explosion

The nuclear submarine of the USSR with K-431 cruise missiles in 1985 was under repair in Chizhma Bay, 55 kilometers from Vladivostok.

When loading nuclear fuel, due to a personnel error, a powerful explosion occurred, which tore off the reactor lid and threw out all the spent nuclear fuel.

The radioactive background in the boat has grown to 90,000 roentgens. The Soviet government established an information blockade. However, after the collapse of the USSR, it became known that 290 people were injured during the disaster, of which 10 died due to the explosion itself, and 39 people suffered from radiation sickness.

Kursk: nuclear disaster

On August 12, 2000, the Kursk nuclear submarine took part in exercises in the Barents Sea, which ended in two explosions and the death of the giant submarine.

According to the official version, the first explosion occurred due to the leakage of torpedo fuel through a rusted shell. Due to the reaction with copper, a chemical explosion occurred in the coating of the torpedo tube.

The submarine began to sink and fell to the seabed. At this time, several more shells exploded on board, causing a two-meter hole to appear in the hull.

23 sailors who survived the explosions closed in the 9th compartment and waited for rescue. However, they did not receive help. In total, 118 people died as a result of the sinking of the Kursk.

Ming III: Ghost Submarine

Diesel-electric submarine Ming III in 2003 was the biggest loss of China's fleet. During the dive, the diesel did not stop for unknown reasons and burned all the oxygen on board.

As a result, all 70 crew members died, and the boat itself went missing. A month after the incident, she was accidentally discovered by Chinese fishermen who caught on the periscope with nets. The submarine sailed autonomously in the Bohai Bay of the Yellow Sea.

She took part in the Ukrainian-Russian exercises "Fairway of Peace-2011".

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The sunken nuclear submarines of the USSR and Russia are the subject of ongoing discussions. During the Soviet and post-Soviet years, four nuclear submarines (K-8, K-219, K-278, Kursk) died. The sunken K-27 was sunk on its own in 1982 after a radiation accident. This was done because the nuclear submarine was not recoverable, and dismantling was too expensive. All these submarines were assigned to the Northern Fleet.

Nuclear submarine K-8

This sunken submarine is considered the first officially recognized loss in the Union nuclear fleet. The cause of the death of the ship on April 12, 1970 was a fire that occurred during his stay in (Atlantic). The crew fought for the survivability of the submarine for a long time. The sailors were able to shut down the reactors. Part of the crew was evacuated aboard a Bulgarian civilian ship that arrived on time, but 52 people died. This sunken submarine was one of the first nuclear-powered ships of the USSR.

Submarine K-219

Project 667A at one time was one of the most modern and survivable ships of the submarine fleet. It sank on October 6, 1986 due to a powerful ballistic missile explosion in the mine. The accident killed 8 people. In addition to two reactors, the sunken submarine had at least fifteen and 45 thermonuclear warheads on board. The ship was severely crippled, but showed amazing survivability. It was able to surface from a depth of 350 meters with terrible damage to the hull and a flooded compartment. The nuclear-powered ship sank only three days later.

"Komsomolets" (K-278)

This project 685 sunken submarine died on April 7, 1989 as a result of a fire that broke out during a combat mission. The ship was located near the (Norwegian Sea) in neutral waters. The crew fought for the survivability of the submarine for six hours, but after several explosions in the compartments, the submarine sank. There were 69 crew members on board. Of these, 42 people died. "Komsomolets" was the most modern submarine of that time. His death caused a great international outcry. Before that, the sunken submarines of the USSR did not attract so much attention (partly because of the secrecy regime).

"Kursk"

This tragedy is probably the most famous disaster associated with the death of a submarine. The Carrier Killer, a formidable and modern nuclear-powered cruiser, sank in a 107-meter depth, 90 km from the coast. 132 submariners were locked at the bottom. Rescue measures for the crew were unsuccessful. According to the official version, the nuclear submarine sank due to the explosion of an experimental torpedo that occurred in the mine. However, much remains unclear about the death of the Kursk. According to other versions (unofficial), the nuclear-powered ship sank due to a collision with the American submarine Toledo, which was nearby, or due to a torpedo fired from it. The unsuccessful rescue operation to evacuate the crew from the sunken ship was a shock to the whole of Russia. 132 people died on board the nuclear-powered ship.

To rescue 44 sailors from the submarine San Juan, which went missing in the South Atlantic in mid-November. At the same time, the search for the submarine itself will continue. The missing submarine became known on 17 November.

RBC recalled the largest accidents with foreign submarines after World War II

1951 British diesel submarine HMS Affray

April 16, 1951 the Affray submarine left its home port to participate in the exercises. There were 75 people on board. Soon the submarine stopped communicating. It was discovered only two months later at a depth of about 90 m in the waters of the English Channel. There were no survivors on board. It was not possible to establish the final cause of the death of the ship. An official investigation came to the conclusion that metal fatigue in one of the nodes responsible for supplying air. According to another version, the cause was an explosion on board.

1953 Turkish submarine Dumlupinar

Photo: Sait Kucuk CPOS (Ret) / Turkish Navy

April 4, 1953 the Turkish submarine Dumlupinar collided in the Dardanelles with the Swedish cargo ship Naboland, after which it quickly sank at a depth of 85 m. At the time of the collision, there were five submariners on the bridge, they managed to escape. The rest of the crew, 81 people, were killed.

1963 American lead nuclear submarine of the Thresher project

April 10, 1963 the lead nuclear submarine of the Thresher project went to sea to conduct test deep-sea dives. The tests turned into the largest accident in the history of the world's submarine fleet. Due to the violation of the integrity of the hull and the ingress of water into the engine room, the boat quickly went to the maximum depth and began to fall apart. Its fragments lie at a depth of 2560 m in the Atlantic Ocean. There were 129 people on board, all died. This disaster was the first sinking of a nuclear submarine in history.

1968 Israeli diesel submarine "Dakar"

Photo: Havakuk Levison / FMS / Reuters

January 25, 1968 The Israeli diesel submarine Dakar sank in the Mediterranean. The British-built submarine was en route from Portsmouth to Haifa. The sunken submarine was discovered only 31 years later: it was found on the approved route at a depth of 3 km. Immediately after the death of the submarine, the Israeli military put forward the version that the Dakar was sunk by a Soviet submarine. After the examination, this suspicion was removed: in 2015, the media reported that a technical malfunction could lead to the loss of control over the submarine.

1968 US nuclear submarine USS Scorpion

Photo: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command/AP

May 22, 1968 Another nuclear submarine (NPS) sank in the Atlantic Ocean - the American Scorpion. It was not possible to establish the cause of her death, as one of the possible options was the explosion of a torpedo on board. The nuclear submarine itself lies at a depth of more than 3 km, and representatives of the US Navy periodically monitor the radiation background in the area of flooding. In 2012, veterans of the US Navy called for a reopening of the investigation into the causes of the disaster and for an underwater expedition.

1971 Pakistani submarine Ghazi

Photo: LCDR Tomme J. Lambertson USN (RET)

December 3, 1971 Pakistani submarine Ghazi sank off the southeast coast of India during the Indo-Pakistani War. There were 92 crew members on board, all of them died. The Indian military claimed that the boat was sunk by their destroyer Rajput. According to the Pakistani side, this was due to an explosion on board or a mine explosion. The sinking of the Ghazi was the first combat loss of a submarine since World War II.

2003 Chinese Submarine No. 361

April 16, 2003 Chinese submarine No. 361 sank in the Yellow Sea. There were 70 crew members on board, all of them died. The Chinese authorities reported the disaster only on May 3, 2003. A malfunction of the diesel cut-off system was cited as the cause, resulting in the production of all oxygen on board. During the investigation of the disaster, four high-ranking military men were dismissed.