Nerpa accident kills 20 by Zuzana Zelenakova

20 people suffocated on the board of Russian nuclear submarine beneath the Sea of Japan and another 21 people were injured. A firefighting system aboard was activated and Freon gas spewed but the reasons why are not known yet. The Akula-class submarine was in the process of sea trial when the accident happened and carried aboard 208 people. 81 of those were seamen and the rest civilians, many worked at the shipyard that built the submarine. Usually this type of submarine carries only 73 members of the crew. "A submarine is the most vulnerable during trials. With both navy and civilian personnel on board, it's very difficult to keep such a large number of people organized," said Gennady Illarionov, a retired submarine officer. With so many extra passengers, and what is more relevant, civilians, the space must have been overcrowded and no surprise many suggest that the shipyard workers did not have a sufficient training and just panicked in an emergency situation failing to use individual breathing kits that could save their lives. "Civilians should have undergone training. But it usually is a mere formality," said Igor Kurdin, a former captain and now the head of an association of submarine veterans. Another suspicion is that there were not enough breathing kits on board. According to one of the officials it is also unclear whether the siren warning the crew that the firefighting system was activated worked properly. The brand new vessel which was said to become the part of the navy´s fleet later this year witnessed the worst accident of this kind since the Kursk disaster in 2000 when 118 were killed. Immediately after the accident president Dmitry Medvedev ordered an investigation. "During the Soviet times, we commissioned three to five submarines a year, and now we get just one in five years," stated Gennady Illarionov. "People forgot caution and lost their skills."


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081109/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_submarine;_ylt=AnuGXQ5lq_exTT3PgDeImDys0NUE

by Zuzana Zelenakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

These news are original content from young talents around the world and are selected for you by Chris Cantell.


edited by Beata Biskova