Hoping to save themselves, they defied orders and passed from one section to the next, gathering in the ninth section, in the stern of the submarine, where the only rear escape hatch was located. They must have realised that their colleagues at the front of the submarine had died immediately in the blast which ripped through the vessel's first three sections on the morning of August 12. These men, all based in the five rear compartments of the submarine, broke strict submarine protocol and abandoned their posts soon after disaster struck. The news raised the highly contentious question of whether lives could have been saved if Russia had not initially refused offers of foreign help in the rescue operation. But Kolesnikov's letter reveals that at least 23 men remained alive - some of them making a desperate and hopeless attempt to escape. Until yesterday Russian officials propagated the theory that all the sailors had died in the minutes after the accident. But the few lines which were released gave a grim insight into how the 118 men in the Kursk died, confirming the worst fears of their relatives that some sailors did survive the initial explosions and were trapped for hours, if not days, inside the submarine. Most of the information was judged too personal - and possibly too politically sensitive - for public consumption. They have now taken this type of torpedo out of service.This letter, barely legible and soaked through with sea water, was found yesterday in one of the pockets in his uniform, shortly after his corpse was dragged out of the nuclear submarine's ravaged hull. Since this programme was first shown, Russian officials have admitted they placed "unfounded trust" in torpedoes powered by HTP. A chemical reaction between HTP and the metal torpedo case could cause a chain of explosions with a seismic trace similar to that observed on the day of the disaster. The most plausible cause is a leak of hydrogen peroxide, known as HTP, used in the Kursk torpedoes' fuel system. And as the scientists uncover the truth about what happened all those years ago, they may also solve the mystery of what really sank the Kursk. The scientists' investigations take them back to a little-known submarine disaster that occurred almost fifty years ago: not in Russia, but in Britain. Through a detailed forensic detective story, seismologists have now been able to establish that the Kursk sank because of an explosion, not a collision.īut what had exploded? Horizon follows torpedo designers and chemists as they try to track down the precise cause of the explosion.
#Kursk submarine disaster hd series
The disaster left a series of geophysical fingerprints. With access to the very latest scientific research, Horizon tells the story of the alternative theory that shows that it probably wasn't a collision, and may point to the true cause of the tragedy. However, new scientific evidence suggests that the Russians were wrong. Satellite photographs and underwater footage all seemed to point to the Russian suspicions being correct. And above all, the Russians believed they had found overwhelming evidence showing the Kursk sank as a result of a collision with an American submarine. There is also a long history of collisions between US and Russian submarines in the Barents Sea. During the naval exercises there had indeed been two American submarines out in the Barents Sea, spying on the Russian weaponry and tactics.
But the Russian suspicions were based on logic. The Russians eventually claimed an American spy submarine had collided with the Kursk, causing her to sink - a claim the Americans flatly deny. One overriding question dominated the aftermath of the disaster: what had caused the submarine to sink? As theories and counter-theories have multiplied, this mystery has been mired in confusion and acrimony. But the rescue efforts were in vain - all the sailors onboard had perished. How could this submarine have foundered?įor a week after the tragedy the world watched in horror, as divers struggled to reach the crew trapped inside the Kursk.
But to many the tragedy remains incomprehensible, for the Kursk had been built to be unsinkable. It was a tragedy which shocked the world. In August 2000, the Russian submarine, the Kursk, sank with the loss of 118 lives.
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