US and British planes carrying robotic undersea vehicles landed in Russia's far east yesterday to help rescue seven sailors trapped in a mini-submarine deep in the Pacific.
Authorities plan to use the unmanned submersibles, known as Super Scorpios, to investigate the accident site and possibly cut the sub loose from entanglements that have held it some 190m below the surface since Thursday.
Rescuers made contact with the crew last night and said their condition was "satisfactory," despite temperatures as low as 5oC, Russian Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Viktor Fyodorov said.
Russia's plea for international assistance underlined the deficiencies of its once-mighty navy and strongly contrasted with the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk five years ago, when authorities held off asking for help until hope was nearly exhausted. All 118 crew died in that accident.
But even with Moscow's quick call for help, rescue workers were racing to free the men before their oxygen supply ran out.
Navy officials have given various estimates of the air supply. Some say it could last into tomorrow. Rear Admiral Vladimir Pepelyayev, deputy head of the navy's general staff, said yesterday that the air would likely last to the end of the day and possibly through today.
"I think it should be enough to last to the end of the [rescue] operation," he said.
Navy spokesman Captain Igor Dygalo said rescue efforts involving the US and British equipment could begin around 8pm Moscow time, Russian news agencies reported. But by early afternoon, the vehicles had not been loaded onto ships in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the rain-soaked Kamchatka peninsula.
Georgy Romanovich, spokesman for the rescue operation headquarters, said it would take five hours for a ship carrying the equipment to reach the site in Beryozovaya Bay, about 75km south of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the capital of the peninsula region north of Japan and west of Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
The vessel, which had been participating in a combat training exercise, got caught on an underwater antenna assembly that is part of Russia's coastal monitoring system.
Officials have said the sub's propeller initially became ensnared in a fishing net.
The Interfax news agency quoted Fyodorov as saying crews planned to try to blow up the anchoring system in an effort to free the vessel, but it was unclear how that would be done.
Apparently lacking rescue vehicles capable of operating at the depth where the sub is stranded, the cash-strapped Russian navy's rescue efforts have focused on trying to grab and drag the sub with a trawling apparatus.
Dygalo earlier said that rescuers had managed to move the sub about 60m toward shore by hooking onto a part of the underwater antenna on which the sub was caught, but reports said the hauling system then became unattached.
"We won't try to drag it any-more. We will try to lift the whole system, rip it off and bring it to the surface," Fyodorov said on NTV television.
The events and the array of confusing and contradictory statements darkly echoed the sinking of the Kursk. That disaster shocked Russians and demonstrated that the once-mighty navy had deteriorated as funding dried up following the 1991 Soviet collapse.
The new crisis indicated that promises by Russian President Vladimir Putin to improve the navy's equipment have had little effect. Putin was criticized for his slow response to the Kursk crisis and reluctance to accept foreign help. By midday yesterday, Putin had made no public comment.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
RSS