![]() Nor was it clear when or how the survivors finally died. Mr Igor Spassky, the head of the Rubin design bureau which built the Kursk, said that they should have been able to get out this way, but may have been hampered by injuries. ![]() Some experts have suggested that the hatch might have been damaged in the blast. It was not clear why the men were unable to put on diving gear and leave through the escape hatch. Then Kolesnikov's handwriting becomes illegible, apart from the figures 13 and 5, followed by the words "I am writing blind", an apparent reference to the darkness which followed power failure within the submarine. We have made this decision because none of us can escape," the note states. "All personnel from sections six, seven and eight have moved to section nine. Foreign and Russian ships in the area registered two powerful explosions from the accident site at around 11.30 a.m. The chief-of-staff of the Northern Fleet, Vice Admiral Mikhail Motsak, said that the note was written between 1.34 p.m. The glowing hands of his luminous wristwatch, a tiny spot of light in the submarine's blackened interior, allowed him to note the precise time of composition. When this failed, the men realised they could do nothing but prepare for death.Īs the most senior officer in the seventh section - commander of the turbine engine room - Kolesnikov took it upon himself to justify the actions of his men. In a passage from the note recounted by a naval spokesman, Lieut Capt Kolesnikov (27) reveals that two or three men were planning to make an escape attempt through this hatch. Hoping to save themselves they took the usually-forbidden move of passing from one section to the next, gathering in the ninth, at the stern of the submarine, where the only rear escape hatch was. ![]() They must already have realised that their colleagues at the front of the submarine had perished in the blast which ripped through the vessel's first three sections on the morning of August 12th. These men, all in the five rear compartments of the submarine, broke strict protocol and abandoned their posts after disaster struck. But the few lines which were released give a grim new insight into how the 118 men on board the Kursk died, confirming the worst fears of the relatives that some sailors did survive the initial explosions and were trapped for hours, if not days, inside the submarine. Most of the information on both sides of the paper was deemed too personal - and possibly too politically sensitive - for public consumption. ![]() This letter, barely legible and soaked with sea water, was found yesterday in one of his uniform pockets, shortly after his corpse was dragged out of the nuclear submarine's ravaged hull. Then he turned over the piece of paper and on the other side composed a goodbye letter to his wife, Olga - feeling his way to trace the words in the dark. In pitch-black darkness, some time after the explosions which sent the Kursk to the bottom of the ocean, Lieut Capt Dmitri Kolesnikov realised he was not going to survive.Īs he waited to die, he wrote a careful account of what had happened on board the submarine, apparently for the benefit of naval officials. ![]()
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