The idea of ​​a submarine itself appeared in the 15th century. This idea came to the brilliant mind of the legendary Leonardo da Vinci. But, fearing the devastating consequences of such a secretive weapon, he destroyed his project.

But this is always the case; if an idea already exists, then sooner or later humanity will realize it. For more than half a century, submarines have been plying the seas and oceans. And, of course, they occasionally get into accidents. Nuclear submarines equipped with nuclear power plants pose a particular danger in this case. Let's talk about their crashes.

USS Thresher

The first sunken nuclear submarine in history was the American USS Thresher, which sank back in 1963. It was built three years earlier and was the first Thrasher-class submarine of its kind.

On April 10, USS Thresher was put to sea to conduct tests deep sea diving and check the strength of the case. For about two hours, the boat submerged and periodically transmitted data on the state of its systems to headquarters. At 09:17 USS Thresher stopped communicating. The last message read: “...maximum depth...”.

When she was found, it turned out that she had broken into six parts, and all 112 crew members and 17 researchers were killed. The cause of the boat's death is said to be a manufacturing defect in the welding of the hull, which could not withstand the pressure, cracked, and water that got inside caused a short circuit in the electronics. The investigation will establish that at the shipyards where the USS Thresher was serviced there was extremely low quality control, and in addition, deliberate sabotage may have occurred. This was the reason for the death of the submarine. Its hull still rests at a depth of 2,560 meters east of Cape Cod.

USS Scorpion

In its entire history, the US Navy has finally and irrevocably lost only two submarines. The first was the USS Thresher mentioned above, and the second was the USS Scorpion, which sank in 1968. The submarine sank in Atlantic Ocean near the Azores Islands. Literally five days after the accident, she was supposed to return to the base in Norfolk, but she did not get in touch.

60 ships and aircraft went in search of the USS Scorpion and found a lot of interesting things, including a sunken German submarine from World War II. But the desired boat was discovered only five months later at a depth of 3000 meters. The entire crew of 99 people died. The causes of the disaster are not fully known, but there is a theory that one of the torpedoes could have exploded on board the boat.

USS San Francisco

But the case of the American boat USS San Francisco is exactly the story of a miraculous rescue. On January 8, 2005, a collision occurred 675 kilometers southeast of Guam. At a depth of 160 m, San Francisco collided with an underwater rock.

At the same time, there were casualties. Ninety-eight crew members received various injuries and fractures. Machinist's Mate Second Class Joseph Allen died of head injuries the next day.

Let's move on to Soviet submarines. The K-8 submarine, which sank in the Bay of Biscay on April 12, 1970, was the first such loss of the Soviet fleet.

The cause of death was a fire in the sonar room, which began to quickly spread through the air ducts and threatened to destroy the entire ship. But simple human heroism saved him. When the sailors from the first shift of the main power plant realized that the fire was continuing to spread, they shut down the nuclear reactors and battened down all the doors to other compartments. The submariners themselves died, but did not allow the fire to destroy the submarine and kill the others. But the nuclear reactor did not release radiation into the ocean.

The surviving sailors were taken on board by the Bulgarian motor ship Avior, which was just passing nearby. Captain 2nd Rank Vsevolod Bessonov and 51 members of his crew died fighting the fire.

K-278 "Komsomolets"

The second sunken Soviet nuclear submarine. The K-278 Komsomolets was also destroyed by a fire that broke out on board on April 7, 1989. The fire broke the seal of the boat, which quickly filled with water and sank.

The sailors managed to send a signal for help, but due to damaged electronics, they were able to receive and decipher it only the eighth time. Some crew members managed to escape and swim to the surface, but they found themselves in ice water. As a result of the disaster, 42 sailors died, and 27 survived.

K-141 "Kursk"

About the mysterious death of the Kursk submarine, strange behavior Russian authorities and questions that no one has yet answered, we have already written in more detail. Therefore, now let’s focus on the main points.

On August 2, 2000, at 11:28, the systems of the cruiser "Peter the Great" recorded a strong bang, after which the ship shook a little. The Kursk participated with the cruiser in Northern Fleet exercises and was supposed to get in touch with it six hours later, but disappeared.

Ukraine is beyond competition

If there is one conclusion that can be drawn from all these stories, it is that the work of submariners is harsh and dangerous. And Ukrainians know how to cope with any dangerous work. Therefore, despite the fact that we do not yet have a submarine fleet, it is a matter of time. As soon as Ukraine has free resources for its creation and development, it will be created.

And we have plenty of strong sailors, whose Cossack ancestors sailed on seagulls all the way to Turkey, and whose fathers and grandfathers served on Soviet submarines. Ukraine usually has no shortage of heroes.

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 valves, 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 reached 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 using the locking method 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 suffered a disaster. 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 dismantling. 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 boat compartments. 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 is 7...

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 failures. 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. A total of 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 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 properly appreciated - the sailor was posthumously given the Order of the Red Star, and only in 1997, already in the post-Soviet period 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 have been put forward and are being put forward. possible reasons accidents. 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.