Quote:
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Originally Posted by jimbuna
However:
6 Sept 2006: Two die after fire in Viktor-III class Daniil Moskovsky
28 Aug 2003: Nine die after decommissioned November class K-159 sinks
12 Aug 2000: 118 die in sinking of Oscar-II class Kursk
7 Apr 1989: 42 die after fire in Soviet-era Komsomolets
Is not a very impressive safety record  |
Well, mind you, the first (and worst) of those two took place at a very different time for Russia, especially economically. Putin & co. have been pushing for the idea of a resurgent Russia where things like that don't happen - alas it's often a ruse. Military prestige is a big idea, but often doesn't match up to reality. Just like the fact that, for all the muscle flexing, independent observers report Russians using woefully obsolete equipment in the Georgia conflict, perhaps because the high-tech stuff wasn't running for lack of funding as usual. Russians are also notorious for having a lot of teething troubles with their equipment even after it enters service (the BMP-3, for instance, was notoriously hated in Chechnya because for all its high-tech features, it was basically rushed into combat in a non-working condition, and its ballistics computer and stabilizing system were broken).
That said, something like this could probably happen on any sub, unfortunately. Especially in a testing period like this.
From the casualty numbers, I would venture to guess two compartments were involved, not one. 41 people is 1/5th of all aboard - I doubt that many would've been in one of the forward compartments at one time, especially since it's speculated that the incident started in the torpedo room.