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| East Asia |
| Chinese Leaders Meet Sub Victims’ Kin |
| 2003-05-06 |
| Update with a few new facts: China's president and his predecessor held an emotional meeting with six relatives of the 70 sailors killed in a mysterious Yellow Sea submarine accident disclosed only days ago, state television reported Monday. The Monday report by China Central Television said Hu and Jiang met with military experts to discuss possible causes for the deaths — indicating officials have not figured out what happened to the submarine, which was towed back to port after the accident. Foreign military analysts say it would be highly unusual for an accident to kill the entire crew but leave the submarine near enough to the surface to be recovered by China's military. Still don't know for sure if it was submerged or surfaced. The analysts say that suggests the crew either suffocated or were poisoned. One theory is that sea water mixed with acid in the submarine's batteries, producing toxic chlorine gas. Foreign newspaper reports over the weekend, citing unidentified Chinese naval officials, said the disaster also might have involved a malfunction in a diesel engine used to power the submarine. In that scenario, a snorkel apparatus that feeds surface air to the engine while at a shallow depth might have become blocked, causing the engine to suck air out of the vessel. The reports, in The Boston Globe and Helsingin Sanomat of Finland, said the disaster occurred April 16 but was not detected until April 26. They said the submarine was on an exercise aimed at avoiding detection and had been under orders not to communicate with its base, and all the sailors were found at their posts. I have read a great deal on sub operations in WW2. When sea water leaked into the batteries and caused chlorine gas, the crew would don breathing gear, seal the battery compartment, and try to surface. It didn't happen so fast as to kill the crew at their stations. Sounds like more of a CO (carbon monoxide) leak from the exhaust or the engine sucked the oxygen out of the boat due to a defective snorkel. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #5 Boy! Us submariners are a unique crowd. When we hear about these incidents, all we want to do is try to figure out what went wrong and where the material/maintenace/training deficiency is. Most likely ORSE boards will now add contaminated emergency air systems as anomalies to drills. If anyone hears anything about the maintenance records on the sub, make sure you post 'em. |
| Posted by: penguin 2003-05-06 18:06:26 |
| #4 Thanks, all! I checked on some keywords on Google after reading all this to get more info and have found some links to further enlighten myself. Sounds like rapid depressurization like this only allows about 10-15 seconds of consciousness, so if that was the situation these guys didn't have very long to react. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-05-06 13:46:42 |
| #3 I think it refers to 6 inches of mercury. Normal atmospheric pressure is 30" of mercury. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2003-05-06 13:20:17 |
| #2 Dar---The ex-submariner was probably saying is that the engines drew combustion air from the hull since the snorkel was shut down. They pulled a good vacuum and the crew died like dogs in a vacuum chamber at the animal shelter. It was not pretty. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-05-06 12:57:16 |
| #1 Chlorine is readily apparent and unmistakeable. The crew would have surely reacted. Carbon monoxide is odorless -- a few on the crew may have gotten headaches before they passed out. Is there any possibility that this boat would be carrying nerve gas weapons? Can it fire missiles? |
| Posted by: Tom 2003-05-06 09:43:14 |