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Ustinov: Second blast fatal for Kursk
MOSCOW, Nov. 3 (UPI) — The second onboard blast of unknown origin led to the sinking last year of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk, a Russian official said Saturday.
"The investigators think that the submarine sank due to the second blast which took place 135 seconds after the first," Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov told a press conference.
The Kursk sank Aug. 12, 2000, during exercises in the Barents Sea under still unexplained circumstances. All 118 crew members were killed.
"We think that the first explosion was the explosion of a torpedo that detonated the entire set of weapons in the bow section of the sub," said Ustinov.
Earlier, Russia's governmental investigating commission put forward three different theories of the sub's disaster, including a collision with another underwater vessel or a World War II mine, as well as an emergency in the sub's torpedo bay that incited a series of blasts.
"This is not a final conclusion, but the visits to the sub and investigative work have convinced us once more that this theory could be right," he said.
Ustinov dismissed as groundless speculation suggesting the Kursk was hit by another submarine
"I don't know who's saying that, but I can tell you unequivocally: we do not have a single (investigation) report confirming that," Ustinov said.
Meanwhile, weapons experts were unloading the 17th of the sub's 22 Russian-made Granit cruise missiles, TV-6 television network reported.
The remaining five rockets, located in the second compartment, were likely to remain on board as the degree of devastation will not allow a routine withdrawal of the missiles, the network added.
According to TV-6, the investigators may decide to leave the five missiles as an emergency effort to retrieve them may not be safe.
The network quoted sources in the navy suggesting that the missiles could be withdrawn at a later stage in the Nerpa shipyard where the Kursk would be subsequently destroyed.
Investigators said Saturday that a total of 55 seamen's bodies have been retrieved since the beginning of the salvage operation. Forty-seven of those bodies have been identified.
Northern Fleet Military Prosecutor Vladimir Mulov told TV-6 Saturday that the search for the bodies of the seamen was completed from the 4th to the 9th compartments. Rescue workers are searching the third compartment.
The deadly blasts turned the Kursk's second and third compartments into heaps of rubble. The first compartment was sliced off and left on the sea floor during last month's effort to hoist the sub.
The fragments of the bow section will remain on the bottom of the Barents Sea until next year when the Russian navy plans to raise them.
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