The Titan Submarine Search
Good Morning,
(Updated with Sounds heard - banging sounds)
On August 12, 2000 a Russian Submarine called the Kursk, carrying 118 sailors sank in the Barents Sea after a massive explosion tore through the torpedo room, sending the submarine to the bottom of the Sea.
It took 16 hours to establish the exact location of the sub even though it was resting in only 354 feet of water.
I reported for days on Russian efforts to reach the sub, and somehow try to open escape hatches, even though Russian rescue subs couldn’t latch onto those hatches even in that depth of water.
There were conflicting reports of sounds heard, possibly by sailors banging on the interior of the sub, and later an investigation showed while most sailors died almost immediately, 23 sailors survived for up to 6 hours in a compartment until oxygen ran low.
Today a new submarine disaster at the site of the wreck of the Titanic is unfolding, and hopes for reaching the five onboard the much smaller sub are dimming rapidly.
Among those believed to be on board the submarine is Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a 77-year-old former French navy commander known as “Mr Titanic”.
And 58 yr old British billionaire Hamish Harding.
The sub is tiny, the size of a van they say, and has up to 96 hours of bottled oxygen, but it is sitting 13 thousand feet below the surface, as it was almost 2 hours into it’s voyage which would have put it near or at bottom of the Titanic wreckage.
It could have become tangled up in wreckage, or suffered a hull breach under massive pressure conditions.
UPDATE - As of Wednesday morning London time there ARE reports from Canadian and U.S. rescue efforts - some banging was heard at 30 minute intervals. And reports of other noises? Could be attempts of the sub to free itself from something?
Canadian and American rescuers ie Coast Guard have dropped numerous sonar buoys to hear if there are sounds coming from the Titan.
Hope is always something to hold onto, but at this point even if the submarine could be spotted, getting it to the surface is apparently almost impossible.
There is no escape, unless hatches are opened from the outside. There is sign of life coming from the ocean floor but the clock is ticking on that oxygen supply.
Other News…
-Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny may never be released from prison. Jailed for essentially proving corruption in the Kremlin, including by Putin himself, and for mobilizing demonstrations again undemocratic rule, he was poisoned and later jailed by Russian authorities which continue to jail and silence opposition figures. Navalny is already serving an 11.5-year prison sentence over fraud and other charges, that by any measure have proven to be fake. Navalny could face decades more in jail on these charges of treason. Up to 500 people and organizations have been silenced in Putin’s Russia which has lost it’s democracy and humanity to silence critics over it’s war in Ukraine.
-Former U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox news now, that he didn’t return classified documents because he didn’t have time to go through boxes from the White House that contained among other things, his golf shirts. Trumps excuses have become so unbelievable one wonders how a court could not convict him on charges of retaining and insecurely storing the nations secrets.
-Romanian prosecutors have sent the controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, plus two other suspects to trial on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. It will likely take a couple of months before the trial of these social media celebrities begins.
Dana