Glad I'm not a passenger

Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,892
Sometimes when things go wrong on anything submersible they can go terribly wrong. Fortunately for the Russians only 14 lives were lost during this incident and the ship was dragged back to a port. For the US there were lessons learned from the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion incidents. Anything involving submarines has always been secretive regardless of who owns the ship. Submarines like many naval vessels are a dangerous business. I really feel bad for the families and friends of the 14 men who lost their lives doing their jobs in Russia's sub service navy. I wish them calm winds and following seas.

Ron
 

Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,892
I confess that plagued by insomnia I mentioned it to my doctor and I take 10 mg Ambien at night before bed. Fortunately unlike some I have no ill side effects like sleep walking. Matter of fact other than good restful sleep I have no side effects.

During the late 70s I had to fly about 50 to 70 thousand air miles a year. Thank God for scotch on the rocks, I slept through many a trans continental flight. The only way I might board a plane today is with a supply of Xanax. My problem drinking away a flight wasn't the flights it was the subsequent hangover. :)

Ron
 

justtrying

Joined Mar 9, 2011
439
Sometimes when things go wrong on anything submersible they can go terribly wrong. Fortunately for the Russians only 14 lives were lost during this incident and the ship was dragged back to a port. For the US there were lessons learned from the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion incidents. Anything involving submarines has always been secretive regardless of who owns the ship. Submarines like many naval vessels are a dangerous business. I really feel bad for the families and friends of the 14 men who lost their lives doing their jobs in Russia's sub service navy. I wish them calm winds and following seas.

Ron
Unfortunately the official statement issued by the government seems to blame the crew. This is difficult to believe as that crew had highly decorated members. Of course the investigation will not be made public.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,343
Unfortunately the official statement issued by the government seems to blame the crew. This is difficult to believe as that crew had highly decorated members. Of course the investigation will not be made public.
We were tracking the sub and most likely have sound recordings (undersea acoustic arrays ) of the accident but those are unlikely to made public too.
https://fas.org/irp/program/collect/iuss.htm
 

justtrying

Joined Mar 9, 2011
439
We were tracking the sub and most likely have sound recordings (undersea acoustic arrays ) of the accident but those are unlikely to made public too.
https://fas.org/irp/program/collect/iuss.htm
Yes. Nothing will be disclosed about it. I wonder if it will be a breaking point for people. Majority that perished saving the sub were from my hometown. St. Petersburg has deep maritime roots and this will not be taken lightly.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,343
Yes. Nothing will be disclosed about it. I wonder if it will be a breaking point for people. Majority that perished saving the sub were from my hometown. St. Petersburg has deep maritime roots and this will not be taken lightly.
In his statement on television, Putin pointed out that seven of the 14 victims on board the submarine were Captain First Rank officers, the most senior officers in the Russian navy, and that two of them had been awarded the prestigious title of Hero of Russia. It seems rather unusual that such high-ranking officials would have been on a scientific mission to study the sea floor off of the northern coasts of Russia and Norway, as the Defense Ministry has claimed.

It's part of the job in the silent service, accidents happen when you push the edge of what's possible.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
https://www.rbth.com/history/330178-soviet-nuclear-submarine-rammed-carrier
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,929
Unfortunately the official statement issued by the government seems to blame the crew. This is difficult to believe as that crew had highly decorated members. Of course the investigation will not be made public.
We may or may not find much out for a long time -- but eventually most of it will likely be released. We have lots of details about most naval accidents that the Soviets/Russian has had.

Even highly competent and decorated people can make mistakes, and just because a crew has highly decorated members does not mean that every member of the crew is highly decorated -- it only takes one person to royally screw things up.

Also, keep in mind that most large militaries, particularly navies, tend to take the notion of accountability to sometimes excessive levels. Unless there was absolutely no way for anyone on the crew to reasonably foresee, avoid, or react effectively to whatever happened, there will usually be some level of blame assessed, even if it's for not maintaining a sufficiently high level of training and vigilance.

Plus, boards of inquiry are rather notorious for second guessing the actions of the people that were on the spot and can spend months coming up with some course of action that could have avoided or mitigated the disaster and then assert that the people that had minutes, perhaps even seconds, to make the decision on what course of action to follow made the wrong one.

But, in fairness, most accidents and disasters were preventable and the chain of events that resulted in it happening and/or not being handled well after it did happen often do contain several critical failures of the humans involved, often due to complacency. Calling that out is completely appropriate, if for no other reason than to reduce the chances of similar things happening in the future. I just wish that the punishments dealt out didn't sometimes ignore the highly professional actions and decisions made in response to the event and focus on mundane and all-to-common shortcoming of training, discipline, and culture.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,343
I was interested in the article but it turned me off almost immediately with its wildly over-exaggerated lead in. Just how, pray tell, was there any chance that the nuclear weapons on-board either vessel could have conceivably detonated as a result of the collision?
Yes, that part was completely stupid but I wanted to get a flavor of the Soviet side of the incident. Captain David Rogers was a former CO of mine at another unit. HE was a great skipper.

https://www.navalhistory.org/2011/03/21/soviet-sub-collides-with-uss-kitty-hawk-21-march-1984

The submarine was believed to be a Victor-I class attack boat, tentatively identified as K-314 (610). During the exercise it had been tracked and “killed” more than fifteen times after it was spotted on the surface fifty miles in front of the battle group.
 
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justtrying

Joined Mar 9, 2011
439
Yes, that part was completely stupid but I wanted to get a flavor of the Soviet side of the incident. Captain David Rogers was a former CO of mine at another unit. HE was a great skipper.

https://www.navalhistory.org/2011/03/21/soviet-sub-collides-with-uss-kitty-hawk-21-march-1984

The submarine was believed to be a Victor-I class attack boat, tentatively identified as K-314 (610). During the exercise it had been tracked and “killed” more than fifteen times after it was spotted on the surface fifty miles in front of the battle group.
There is quite a lot of information on this in russian. None seem to explain just how did they get so close undetected. I have to read some more in this accident, a bit before my time
 

Thread Starter

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,786
I always thought that cell phone restriction on planes was due to over-caution on the part of the FAA. But I did not know that it could cause actual, real problems. Check this link.

... I did have had a cell phone call bleed into my communication radios. It was on an older aircraft (Falcon 20), but it was during an approach and we had to break off while we tried to figure out where the interruption was coming from.
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
6,334
Two Jumbos, one following the other at low altitude. Is the president in town?

Sorry for the bad picture -- had to get my phone out and take the photo fast:

20190912_104845.jpg
 
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