Good News
A British team with a Super Scorpio remote-controlled submersible has manage to cut the Russian AS-28 Priz-class submersible free and the vehicle has risen to the surface at 03:26GMT, Sunday [22:26CDT, Saturday].
The Priz, literally “prize”, vehicles are used for submarine rescue work and are designed for depths of 1000 meters, the problem is that there are very few of the vehicles in the Russian Navy and the vehicle was trapped at 190 meters, below the safe level for other methods to be used.
Based on the reports, the AS-28 became entangled in a fishing net that was entangled with a military communications and detection system anchored to the bottom. The Super Scorpio had to cut the cables to free up the vehicle for ascent. An earlier Russian attempt to raise the vessel using cables also became enmeshed in the antennae of the communications system.
The various reports on how long the crew could survive were the result of having the figures for the vehicle under the normal conditions of three crewmembers, but actually having seven members on board for a training mission.
The US also flew two Super Scorpios and deep diving teams to Kamchatka, but arrived after the British team. The Japanese sent several vessels, but they can’t be in the area until Monday at the earliest.
This MSNBC report has the outline of information. I held up because there have been so many faulty reports coming out on this, and most events from Russia.
