Major accidents on Soviet and Russian nuclear submarines. Major accidents on submarines in the USSR and Russia

October 7th, 2014 , 01:21 pm

On October 6, 1986, the K-219 submarine sank near Bermuda. The cause of the disaster was an explosion in a missile silo. This post is dedicated to the memory of all submariners who died in disasters.

The pier is quiet at night.
You only know one
When the submarine is tired
Coming home from the depths

In December 1952, the diesel-electric boat S-117, preparing for exercises as part of the Pacific Fleet, crashed in the Sea of Japan. Due to a breakdown of the right diesel engine, the boat went to the designated point on one engine. A few hours later, according to the commander’s report, the malfunction was fixed, but the crew no longer contacted us. The cause and place of the submarine's death are still unknown. Presumably sank during a test dive after poor or unsuccessful repairs at sea due to faulty air and gas flaps, due to which the diesel compartment was quickly filled with water and the boat was unable to surface. It should be taken into account that this was 1952. For the failure of a combat mission, both the commander of the boat and the commander of the BC-5 could be put on trial. There were 52 people on board.

On November 21, 1956, near Tallinn (Estonia), the M-200 submarine, part of the Baltic Fleet, collided with the destroyer Statny. 6 people were saved. 28 died.

Another accident in the Gulf of Tallinn occurred on September 26, 1957, when the diesel submarine M-256 from the Baltic Fleet sank after a fire started on board. Although she was initially able to be raised, she sank to the bottom four hours later. Of the 42 crew members, 7 people were saved. The A615 project boat had a diesel engine-based propulsion system operating underwater in a closed cycle through a solid chemical absorber to remove carbon dioxide and enrich the combustible mixture with liquid oxygen, which sharply increased the risk of a fire. A615 boats were notorious among submariners; due to their high fire hazard, they were called “lighters.”

On January 27, 1961, the diesel submarine S-80 sank in the Barents Sea. She did not return to base from the training ground. The search operation yielded no results. Only seven years later the S-80 was found. The cause of death was the flow of water through the valve of the RDP (a retractable device of a submarine for supplying air to diesel engines in the periscope position of the submarine) into its diesel compartment. To date, there is no clear picture of the incident. According to some reports, the boat tried to evade the ramming attack of the Norwegian reconnaissance ship "Maryata" by urgently diving in circulation and, being heavily weighted so as not to be thrown to the surface (there was a storm), fell to depth with the shaft raised and the air flap of the RDP open. The entire crew - 68 people - died. There were two commanders on board.

On July 4, 1961, during the Arctic Circle exercise, a radiation leak occurred on the failed reactor of the K-19 submarine. The crew was able to fix the problem on their own, the boat remained afloat and was able to return to base. Eight submariners died from ultra-high doses of radiation.

On January 14, 1962, a diesel submarine B-37 from the Northern Fleet exploded at the Northern Fleet naval base in the city of Polyarny. As a result of the explosion of ammunition in the bow torpedo compartment, everyone on the pier, on the submarine and at the torpedo-technical base - 122 people - were killed. The nearby S-350 submarine was seriously damaged. The commission to investigate the emergency concluded that the cause of the tragedy was damage to the fairing of the combat charging compartment of one of the torpedoes during loading of ammunition. After which the commander of the warhead-3, in order to hide the incident on list No. 1 of emergency incidents in the fleet, tried to solder the hole, which is why the torpedo caught fire and exploded. The detonation caused the remaining combat torpedoes to explode. The commander of the boat, Captain 2nd Rank Begeba, was on the pier 100 meters from the ship, was thrown into the water by an explosion, was seriously injured, was subsequently put on trial, defended himself and was acquitted.

On August 8, 1967, in the Norwegian Sea, on the nuclear submarine K-3 Leninsky Komsomol, the first nuclear submarine of the USSR Navy, a fire occurred in compartments 1 and 2 while underwater. The fire was localized and extinguished by sealing the emergency compartments. 39 crew members were killed, 65 people were saved. The ship returned to base under its own power.

On March 8, 1968, the diesel-electric missile submarine K-129 from the Pacific Fleet was lost. The submarine carried out combat service in the Hawaiian Islands, and since March 8 it has stopped communicating. 98 people died. The boat sank at a depth of 6000 meters. The cause of the disaster is unknown. There were 100 people on board the boat, discovered in 1974 by Americans who unsuccessfully tried to raise it.

On April 12, 1970, the nuclear submarine K-8, Project 627A, from the Northern Fleet, sank in the Bay of Biscay as a result of a fire in the aft compartments. 52 people died, 73 people were saved. The boat sank at a depth of more than 4,000 meters. There were two nuclear weapons on board. Two nuclear reactors were shut down by standard means before the flooding.

On February 24, 1972, while returning to base from a combat patrol in the North Atlantic, a fire occurred in the ninth compartment on the K-19 Project 658 nuclear submarine. Later the fire spread to the eighth compartment. More than 30 ships and vessels of the Navy took part in the rescue operation. In conditions of a severe storm, it was possible to evacuate most of the K-19 crew, supply electricity to the boat and tow it to the base. 28 sailors were killed, 76 people were saved.

On June 13, 1973, in the Peter the Great Gulf (Sea of Japan), the nuclear submarine K-56, Project 675MK, collided with the research vessel Akademik Berg. The boat was on the surface heading to the base at night after performing firing exercises. At the junction of the first and second compartments, a four-meter hole was formed, into which water began to flow. To prevent the final sinking of K‑56, the commander of the boat decided to land the submarine on a coastal sandbank in the area of Cape Granitny. 27 people died.

On October 21, 1981, the diesel medium submarine S-178 Project 613B sank in the Sea of Japan as a result of a collision with the large refrigerated fishing trawler Refrigerator-13. The accident claimed the lives of 31 sailors.

On June 24, 1983, the nuclear submarine K‑429 Project 670A from the Pacific Fleet sank off the Kamchatka Peninsula. The disaster occurred when trimming the boat in an area where the depth was 35 meters, due to water entering the fourth compartment through the ship's ventilation shaft, which was mistakenly left uncovered when the boat was submerged. Some of the crew members were saved, but 16 people had previously died as a result of an explosion of batteries and a struggle for survivability. If the boat had gone to great depths, it would definitely have perished along with the entire crew. The death of the ship occurred due to the criminal negligence of the command, which ordered a faulty submarine with a non-staff crew to go to sea for shooting. The crew left the sunken boat by locking through torpedo tubes. The commander, who completely objected to the decision of the headquarters and only went to sea under the threat of deprivation of his position and party membership card, was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison, amnestied in 1987 and soon died. The direct culprits, as always happens with us, escaped responsibility. The boat was subsequently raised, but it sank again in the factory at the pier, after which it was written off.

On October 6, 1986, in the area of Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 4000 meters, the nuclear submarine K‑219 project 667AU sank as a result of a rocket explosion in a mine. Both nuclear reactors were shut down with standard absorbers. On board were 15 ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads and two nuclear weapons. 4 people died. The remaining crew members were evacuated to the rescue ship "Agatan" that arrived from Cuba.

On April 7, 1989, in the Norwegian Sea, as a result of a fire in the tail sections at a depth of 1700 meters, the nuclear submarine K‑278 "Komsomolets" pr. 685 sank, receiving severe damage to the pressure hull. 42 people died. On board were two normally shut down nuclear reactors and two nuclear weapons.

On August 12, 2000, during naval exercises of the Northern Fleet in the Barents Sea, the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk crashed. The submarine was discovered on August 13 at a depth of 108 meters. The entire crew of 118 people died.

On August 30, 2003, the nuclear submarine K‑159 sank in the Barents Sea while being towed for dismantlement. There were 10 crew members on board the boat as an escort team. 9 people died.

On November 8, 2008, during factory sea trials in the Sea of Japan, an accident occurred on the nuclear submarine Nerpa, built at the Amur Shipyard in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and not yet accepted into the Russian Navy. As a result of the unauthorized activation of the LOX (boat volumetric chemical) fire extinguishing system, freon gas began to flow into the compartments of the boat. 20 people died, another 21 people were hospitalized with poisoning. In total, there were 208 people on board the submarine.

April 7 is a special day in Russia - the Day of Remembrance of Dead Submariners. It is celebrated in memory of all the dead sailors of the submarine fleet, and the immediate reason for setting the date on April 7 was the tragedy that occurred on this day in 1989 in the Norwegian Sea. Then the nuclear combat submarine K-278 Komsomolets crashed. Of the submarine's 69 crew, 42 were killed.

Submariner is a heroic profession. Unfortunately, its specificity is such that, when setting sail, officers, midshipmen, foremen, and submarine sailors do not know whether they will see their family and friends again. The history of the Soviet and Russian submarine fleet is not only about achievements, increasingly advanced submarines and military victories. These include human losses, thousands of submariners who did not return from combat missions in both war and peacetime.

So, from 1955 to 2014. only six nuclear submarines sank - 4 Soviet and 2 Russian (although the K-27 was sunk for disposal purposes, but before that there was a serious accident on the boat, which subsequently became the reason for the decision to sink it).

The Soviet nuclear submarine K-27 was launched in 1962 and received the nickname “Nagasaki” among sailors. On May 24, 1968, the K-27 submarine was in the Barents Sea. The crew of the boat checked the parameters of the main power plant in running modes after completing work to modernize the equipment. At this time, the reactor power began to decrease, and the sailors tried to raise it. At 12:00, a release of radioactive gases occurred in the reactor compartment. The crew reset the emergency protection of the left reactor. The radiation situation on the boat has worsened. The accident led to serious consequences for the crew. All sailors on the boat were irradiated, 9 crew members died - one sailor suffocated in a gas mask on board the boat, eight people died later in the hospital from the effects of radiation doses received on board the boat. In 1981, the boat was disposed of in the Kara Sea.

On April 12, 1970, exactly 47 years ago, in the Bay of Biscay, 490 km from the Spanish coast, K-8, the Soviet nuclear submarine of Project 627A “Kit” sank. The K-8 boat was commissioned into the USSR Navy on March 2, 1958, and launched on May 31, 1959. Like other first-generation nuclear submarines, the K-8 was not perfect - accidents often occurred on it due to various equipment breakdowns. For example, on October 13, 1960, a cooling circuit pipe ruptured in one of the reactors, resulting in a coolant leak, as a result of which the crew received various radiation doses. On June 1, 1961, a similar incident occurred again, as a result of which one of the crew members had to be discharged with acute radiation sickness. On October 8, 1961, an accident occurred again.

Vsevolod Bessonov, commander of the K-8 nuclear submarine.

However, despite the crew's attempts to save the boat, K-8 sank within a short time. In total, 52 people died on the submarine. Thus, 46 crew members managed to escape. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 26, 1970, Captain 2nd Rank Vsevolod Borisovich Bessonov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The entire crew of the submarine received state awards. The death of K-8 and 52 sailors was the first such loss of the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet and opened the account of other similar tragedies.

The K-219 strategic nuclear submarine was laid down in 1970 - the same year when the terrible accident on the K-8 nuclear submarine occurred. In 1971, the nuclear submarine was launched. Over the fifteen years of service of the nuclear submarine, it has repeatedly encountered a wide variety of problems associated with nuclear missile launchers and missile silo covers. For example, already in 1973, the tightness of rocket silo No. 15 was broken, as a result of which water began to flow into the silo, which reacted with a component of the rocket fuel. The resulting aggressive nitric acid damaged the rocket's fuel lines and an explosion occurred. One crew member became his victim, and the missile silo was flooded. In January 1986, there was a problem with a missile launch during a training exercise, which forced the boat to surface after launch and return to the naval base on the surface. However, on September 4, 1986, the nuclear submarine K-219 set off on a voyage to the US coast, where it was to carry out patrol duty with 15 nuclear missiles on board. The submarine cruiser was commanded by Captain 2nd Rank Igor Britanov. Before the K-219 went to sea, 12 submarine officers out of 32 were replaced. They had to go on a campaign with a new senior officer, assistant commander, commanders of the missile and mine-torpedo combat units, the head of the radio engineering service, the commander of the electrical division, the commanders of 4 compartments, the ship's doctor. In addition, 12 midshipmen out of 38 midshipmen of the crew were replaced, including two foremen of the missile warhead-2 teams. When the cruiser plunged into the Barents Sea, a leak opened in missile silo No. 6. The officer in charge of the missile armament did not inform the K-219 commander Britanov about this incident. It is likely that he was guided by considerations of his own career - he did not want to be responsible for the consequences of returning the boat to the naval base. Meanwhile, the malfunction in the missile silo had been known for a long time, but was not reported to higher command - the remark was removed by the division's flagship specialist.

While the boat was between the UK and Iceland, it was detected by US Navy sonar systems. At the same time, K-219 made every effort not to be detected. On October 3, K-219 was discovered by the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Augusta, which was heading to the USSR coast - also to perform patrol functions. By this time, it was already necessary to pump water out of missile silo No. 6 twice a day. However, in the end, in the early morning of October 3, 1986, missile silo No. 6 completely depressurized and water poured into it. The officer in charge of the missile armament, Petrachkov, put forward his proposal - to surface to a depth of 50 meters, fill the missile silo with water, and then fire the missiles by emergency starting the main engines. This way he hoped to protect the rocket from destruction in the silo itself. However, there was not enough time, and the rocket exploded in the mine itself. The explosion destroyed the outer wall of the missile body and warheads. Its parts fell inside the cruiser. The hole contributed to the rapid immersion of the ship to 300 meters - almost to the maximum permissible depth. After this, the cruiser commander decided to blow out the tanks in order to get rid of ballast water. Two minutes after the explosion, K-219 abruptly floated to the surface. The personnel left the missile compartment and battened down the sealed bulkheads. Thus, the boat was divided into halves - the command and torpedo compartments were isolated by the emergency missile compartment from other compartments - the medical, reactor, control and turbine compartments, located in the stern of the ship.

In memory of the fallen submariners. Major accidents on Soviet and Russian nuclear submarines The reactor compartment commander, senior lieutenant Nikolai Belikov, and 20-year-old special hold sailor Sergei Preminin (pictured) went to the reactor enclosure - they were going to lower the compensating grids. The temperature in the cell reached 70 °C, but senior lieutenant Belikov still lowered three of the four bars, and only then fell unconscious. The last fourth grate was lowered by the sailor Preminin. But he was unable to get back out - due to the difference in pressure, neither he nor the sailors on the other side were able to open the compartment hatch. Preminin died, at the cost of his life, preventing a nuclear explosion. It is noteworthy that then his feat was not appreciated - the sailor was posthumously given the Order of the Red Star, and only in 1997, already in the post-Soviet period of national history, Sergei Preminin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.

K-219 established contact with the Soviet civilian refrigerator "Fedor Bredikhin". In addition to the refrigerator, the timber carrier "Bakaritsa", the tanker "Galileo Galilei", the bulk carrier "Krasnogvardeysk" and the roll-off vessel "Anatoly Vasilyev" approached the scene of the accident. Then the US Navy ships arrived - the tug USNS Powhatan and the submarine USS Augusta. The command of the USSR Navy decided to tow the K-219. There was a great danger that the boat, if abandoned by the crew, would be captured by the American Navy. Due to the spread of poisonous gas, the Soviet command eventually decided to evacuate the crew, but the commander of the K-219 Britanov remained on the boat to protect it from possible penetration of the Americans with weapons in their hands. He, a group of officers and secret documents, was the last to leave the boat - on a boat. As a result of the accident on the K-219, 4 people died - the commander of the warhead-2, captain 3rd rank Petrachkov Alexander; sailor for weapons Smaglyuk Nikolay; driver Kharchenko Igor; reactor engineer Sergei Preminin. Upon his return to the USSR, Igor Britanov was under investigation, then the charges against him were dropped, but he was dismissed from the ranks of the USSR Navy. Quite a lot of articles have been written about the accident on K-219; various versions of the possible causes of the accident have been and are being put forward. Without going into more detail on this issue, it should be noted that the sailors of the boat, at the cost of their lives, tried to correct the emergency situation that arose on the submarine. Eternal memory to them for this.

November 8, 2008 occurred during factory sea trials in the Sea of Japan, built at the Amur Shipyard in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and not yet accepted into the Russian Navy. As a result of the unauthorized activation of the LOX (boat volumetric chemical) fire extinguishing system, freon gas began to flow into the compartments of the boat. 20 people died, another 21 people were hospitalized with poisoning. In total, there were 208 people on board the submarine.

August 30, 2003 in the Barents Sea while towing to the city of Polyarny for disposal. There were ten members of the mooring crew on board the submarine, nine of them died, one was rescued.
During a storm, with the help of which the K‑159 was towed. The disaster occurred three miles northwest of Kildin Island in the Barents Sea at a depth of 170 meters. The nuclear reactor on the nuclear submarine was in a safe condition.

August 12, 2000 during naval exercises of the Northern Fleet in the Barents Sea. The disaster occurred 175 kilometers from Severomorsk, at a depth of 108 meters. All 118 crew members on board were killed.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, "Kursk" is inside the fourth torpedo tube, which resulted in the explosion of the remaining torpedoes located in the first compartment of the APRK.

April 7, 1989 upon returning from combat service in the Norwegian Sea in the area of Bear Island. As a result of a fire in two adjacent compartments of K‑278, the main ballast tank systems were destroyed, through which the submarine was flooded with sea water. 42 people died, many from hypothermia.
27 crew members.

October 6, 1986 in the area of Bermuda in the Sargasso Sea (Atlantic Ocean) at a depth of about 5.5 thousand meters. On the morning of October 3, an explosion occurred in a missile silo on board the submarine, and then a fire started that lasted for three days. The crew did everything possible to prevent a nuclear explosion and a radiation disaster, but they were unable to save the ship. Four people died on board the submarine. The surviving crew members were lifted onto the Russian ships "Krasnogvardeysk" and "Anatoly Vasilyev", which came to the aid of the submarine in distress.

June 24, 1983 4.5 miles from the shores of Kamchatka, the nuclear submarine K‑429 from the Pacific Fleet sank during a dive. K‑429 was urgently sent from repair to torpedo firing without checking for leaks and with an assembled crew (some of the staff were on vacation, the replacement was not prepared). During the dive, the fourth compartment flooded through the ventilation system. The boat lay on the ground at a depth of 40 meters. When trying to blow out the main ballast, due to the open ventilation valves of the main ballast tank, most of the air went overboard.
As a result of the disaster, 16 people died, the remaining 104 were able to reach the surface through the bow torpedo tubes and the aft escape hatch shaft.

October 21, 1981 diesel submarine S-178, returning to base after a two-day trip to sea, in the waters of Vladivostok with a transport refrigerator. Having received a hole, the submarine took on about 130 tons of water, lost buoyancy and went under water, sinking at a depth of 31 meters. As a result of the disaster, 32 submariners were killed.

June 13, 1973 occurred in Peter the Great Gulf (Sea of Japan). The boat was on the surface heading to the base at night after performing firing exercises. "Akademik Berg" hit "K-56" on the starboard side, at the junction of the first and second compartments, making a huge hole in the hull into which water began to flow. The submarine was saved from destruction at the cost of their lives by the personnel of the second emergency compartment, who battened down the bulkhead between the compartments. The accident killed 27 people. About 140 sailors survived.

February 24, 1972 when returning to base from combat patrol.
At this time, the boat was in the North Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 120 meters. Thanks to the selfless actions of the crew, K‑19 surfaced. Navy ships and vessels took part in the rescue operation. In conditions of a severe storm, it was possible to evacuate most of the K-19 crew, supply electricity to the boat and tow it to the base. As a result of the boat accident, 28 sailors were killed, two more died during the rescue operation.

April 12, 1970 in the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean, which led to the loss of buoyancy and longitudinal stability.
The fire started on April 8 almost simultaneously in two compartments, when the boat was at a depth of 120 meters. K-8 floated to the surface, the crew courageously fought for the survivability of the boat. On the night of April 10-11, three vessels of the USSR Marine Fleet arrived in the area of the accident, but due to a storm, it was not possible to take the submarine into tow. Part of the submarine’s personnel was transferred to the Kasimov ship, and 22 people, led by the commander, remained on board the K-8 to continue the fight for the survivability of the ship. But on April 12, the submarine sank at a depth of more than 4,000 meters. 52 crew members were killed.

May 24, 1968 occurred, which had two liquid metal coolant reactors. As a result of a violation of heat removal from the core, overheating and destruction of fuel elements in one of the submarine’s reactors occurred. All the boat's mechanisms were taken out of action and mothballed.
During the accident, nine people received lethal doses of radiation.

March 8, 1968 from the Pacific Fleet. The submarine carried out combat service in the Hawaiian Islands, and since March 8 it has stopped communicating. According to various sources, there were from 96 to 98 crew members on board the K-129, all of them died. The cause of the disaster is unknown. Subsequently, the Americans discovered K-129 and recovered it in 1974.

September 8, 1967 In the Norwegian Sea, a fire occurred in two compartments on the submarine K-3 "Leninsky Komsomol" while underwater, which was localized and extinguished by sealing the emergency compartments. 39 crew members were killed. The submarine returned to base under its own power.

January 11, 1962 at the Northern Fleet naval base in the city of Polyarny. A fire started on the submarine standing at the pier, followed by an explosion of torpedo ammunition. The bow of the boat was torn off, the debris scattered over a radius of more than a kilometer.
The nearby S-350 submarine suffered significant damage. As a result of the emergency, 78 sailors were killed (not only from the B-37, but also from four other submarines, as well as from the reserve crew). There were also casualties among the civilian population of the city of Polyarny.

July 4, 1961 during the Arctic Circle ocean exercises of the main power plant. A pipe in the cooling system of one of the reactors burst, causing a radiation leak.
For an hour and a half, the submariners repaired the emergency cooling system of the reactor without protective suits, with their bare hands, and wearing military gas masks. The crew members said the ship remained afloat and was towed to base.
From the received doses of radiation in a few days.

January 27, 1961 The diesel submarine S-80, part of the Northern Fleet, sank in the Barents Sea. On January 25, she went to sea for several days to practice improving the tasks of solo navigation, and on January 27, radio contact with her was interrupted. The S-80 did not return to the base in Polyarny. The search operation yielded no results. S‑80 was found only in 1968, and was later raised from the bottom of the sea. The cause of the accident was the flow of water through the valve of the RDP (a retractable device of a submarine for supplying atmospheric air to its diesel compartment during the periscope position of the submarine and removing diesel exhaust gases). The entire crew died - 68 people.

September 26, 1957 in the Tallinn Bay of the Baltic Sea from the Baltic Fleet.
A fire broke out on a submarine that was measuring underwater speeds on a measuring line at the training ground of the Tallinn naval base. Having surfaced from a depth of 70 meters, M‑256 anchored. Brought to the upper deck due to heavy gas pollution in the interior, the crew did not stop fighting for the survivability of the boat. 3 hours 48 minutes after surfacing, the submarine suddenly sank to the bottom. Most of the crew died: out of 42 submariners, seven sailors survived.

November 21, 1956 Not far from Tallinn (Estonia), the M-200 diesel submarine from the Baltic Fleet sank as a result of a collision with the destroyer Statny. Six people were immediately rescued from the water. As a result of the accident, 28 sailors were killed.

In December 1952 The diesel-electric submarine S-117 from the Pacific Fleet was lost in the Sea of Japan. The boat was supposed to take part in the exercises. On the way to the maneuver area, its commander reported that due to a breakdown of the right diesel engine, the submarine was going to the designated point on one engine. A few hours later he reported that the problem had been fixed. The boat never made contact again. The exact cause and place of death of the submarine are unknown.
There were 52 crew members on board the boat, including 12 officers.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

The Soviet submarine K-19 became the first nuclear submarine to crash.

TOP 5 worst submarine accidents

K-19 received the nickname "Hiroshima" from the sailors© wikimedia.org

Photo 1 of 14:© wikimedia.org

Exactly half a century ago, the first accident occurred on the nuclear submarine K-19, which sailors later nicknamed “Hiroshima.”

Although the ship survived and was later repaired, its crew received a large dose of radiation, and eight sailors died in agony from radiation sickness.

And after July 4, 1961, K-19 was not the only submarine to survive a major accident.

Over the next half century, sunken nuclear boats contaminated the world's oceans with nuclear fuel.

And thanks to the Chinese submarine Ming III, a ghost submarine appeared in the sea.

K-19: first accident at depth

The first Soviet missile carrier based on the K-19 nuclear reactor went to the North Atlantic in 1961 for training shooting ranges.

However, an emergency situation arose on board near Norway. The reactor cooling systems failed.

The sailors began to make a new cooling system. The radioactive background in the submarine increased catastrophically, which is why 42 sailors received a large dose of radiation.

A day after the accident, all crew members were evacuated, and the boat itself was towed to a military base for decontamination and repair.

Within 24 hours, 6 exposed sailors died, and in the next few weeks, two more men died. The K-19 accident was the first submarine disaster in history.

Thresger: the first nuclear submarine to die

The American nuclear submarine Thresher was lost during a failed strength test in 1963. The submarine was supposed to dive 360 meters under water.

However, already at the 270th meter the boat crew did not get in touch. As it turned out, the submarine did not pass the test and broke into several parts.

129 people, including 16 officers, 96 crew members and 17 engineers who did not serve in the US Army, were killed.

Thresher became the first nuclear submarine to remain on the ocean floor. The number of deaths in the disaster of this submarine remains a record to this day.

K-431: submarine explosion

In 1985, the USSR nuclear submarine with cruise missiles K-431 was undergoing repairs in Chizhma Bay, 55 kilometers from Vladivostok.

When loading nuclear fuel, due to a personnel error, a powerful explosion occurred, which tore off the reactor lid and threw out all the spent nuclear fuel.

The radioactive background in the boat increased to 90 thousand roentgens. The Soviet government established an information blockade. However, after the collapse of the USSR, it became known that 290 people were injured during the disaster, of which 10 died due to the explosion itself, and 39 people suffered from radiation sickness.

Kursk: nuclear disaster

On August 12, 2000, the nuclear submarine Kursk participated in exercises in the Barents Sea, which ended with two explosions and the death of the giant submarine.

According to the official version, the first explosion occurred due to a leak of torpedo fuel through a rusted shell. Due to a reaction with copper in the coating of the torpedo tube, a chemical explosion occurred.

The submarine began to sink and fell to the seabed. At this time, several more shells exploded on board, causing a two-meter hole to appear in the hull.

23 sailors who survived the explosions locked themselves in the 9th compartment and waited for rescue. However, they did not receive help. In total, 118 people died as a result of the sinking of the Kursk.

Ming III: Ghost Submarine

The diesel-electric submarine Ming III in 2003 became the biggest loss of the Chinese fleet. During the dive, the diesel engine did not stop for unknown reasons and burned all the oxygen on board.

As a result, all 70 crew members were killed, and the boat itself went missing. A month after the incident, she was accidentally discovered by Chinese fishermen whose nets were caught on the periscope. The submarine swam autonomously in the Bohai Bay of the Yellow Sea.

She took part in the Ukrainian-Russian exercises "Peace Fairway 2011".

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The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources