Reuters
MOSCOW -
The Russian navy confirmed on Thursday that a letter had been
found in the pocket of a dead crew member retrieved from the sunken
Kursk submarine, showing that many of the 118 crew had not died
instantly.
The Northern Fleet's chief of staff, Vice-Admiral Mikhail Motsak,
said in a televised statement that the letter found in the pocket
of Lieutenant-Colonel Mikhail Kolesnikov was private and would
be handed to relatives. But he added it contained some important
information about August's accident in the Barents Sea.
Motsak said the letter had been written within the two hours after
1:15 p.m. on August 12 and that crew members from several sections
had managed to gather in the rear part of the vessel but failed
to escape.
Earlier, officials said most of the crew had died in a minute
or two after the blast which destroyed the submarine.
Motsak did not say how many crew members the letter had referred
to, but said it was most of the members of sections six, seven
and eight. Itar-Tass news agency said earlier the letter mentioned
23 people.
Associated Press
Excerpts
From Doomed Sailor's Note
MOSCOW ––
Excerpts of a message written by Lt. Dmitry Kolesnikov, a 27-year-old
officer on the nuclear submarine Kursk hours after the submarine
sank on Aug. 12, according to navy chief Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov:
"All the crew from the sixth, seventh and eighth compartments
went over to the ninth. There are 23 people here. We made this
decision as a result of the accident. None of us can get to the
surface." "I am writing blindly," the message continued later
in disorderly handwriting after the lights went off. The message
contained lines written to Kolesnikov's family, which officials
declined to release.
Officer's
tragic note gives glimpse of last moments of Kursk crew SEVEROMORSK,
Russia, Oct 26 (AFP) - A note scribbled by an officer on Russia's
Kursk nuclear submarine revealed Thursday that at least 23 of
its 118 crew survived the explosions which sank the vessel and
tried to seek safety at its rear. Lieutenant-Captain Dmitry Kolesnikov's
stark message contradicted official claims that most of the crew
died shortly after two unexplained blasts sent the submarine to
the bottom of the Barents Sea on August 12. Northern Fleet Chief-of-Staff
Mikhail Motsak said rescue workers found the message in Kolesnikov's
pocket when they raised his body and three others from the craft.
The note was the first direct testimony to reach the outside world
of conditions aboard the Kursk moments after the disaster, a tragedy
which kept Russians glued to their television screens. The reverse
side of the note contained a poignant message from Kolesnikov
to his new bride, which Motsak refused to divulge. Writing blind,
Kolesnikov scribbled down the phrase: "13:15. The whole crew of
the sixth, seventh and eight sections have moved into the ninth.
"There are 23 of us here. We made this decision (to move back)
as a result of the accident. None of us have been able to get
out," he wrote. Kolesnikov's widow Olga, who only married the
30-year-old this year, wept as she spoke of her desire to see
her husband's face one more time. "I heard the official announcement
on the television at 2:00 pm," she said. "I'm preparing to meet
him. He's my dearest relative, he's my love. I want to see him
one more time. I want to read his letter," she said, wiping away
tears with a handkerchief. The note was written over a 100-minute
span on the day the disaster struck, Motsak said. Kolesnikov wrote
that at least two or three crew members would try to escape the
craft through an emergency escape hatch. The navy chief-of-staff
said flooding had probably thwarted those efforts. The note also
suggested that the crew had opted to ignore the rule book which
states that all hatches separating the craft's sections must be
sealed in the event of an accident to prevent flooding. The development
also undermined the official version of events surrounding Russia's
worst post-Soviet maritime disaster. Navy commanders and ministers
had at first said that some Kursk survivors were communicating
with rescuers by banging against the craft's hull. The government
later retracted, saying the banging had been a mechanical noise
and that the rescue operation was doomed from the start because
almost everyone had died in the first few minutes of the disaster.
Meanwhile, high winds and heavy seas Thursday forced divers to
suspend the search for more bodies, although President Vladimir
Putin vowed to continue the recovery operation "whatever the difficulties"
so the state could honour "these hero-sailors." The promise clashed
with comments by Igor Spasky, whose firm designed the Kursk and
signed the contract to recover the bodies. He said the search
could be halted if 23-24 corpses were found in the boat's rear
compartment as proceeding further could endanger the lives of
the divers. Putin also insisted the recovery operation would be
conducted "in the greatest of openness, including the (inquiry)
into the causes of the catastrophe." An official commission should
confirm the most likely explanation for the tragedy at November
8 meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said. Navy chief
Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov said earlier this week that he was
"80 percent certain" that the Kursk had been sunk by a collision
with another submarine. Washington and London deny involvement
and Western intelligence reports say fuel in one of the Kursk's
torpedoes probably caught fire causing the blasts that sank the
craft.
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