2008 Russian Submarine K-152 Nerpa Accident - Exacerbating Factors

Exacerbating Factors

According to survivors, those affected by the gas release were caught off guard and may not have been alerted in time due to warning sirens sounding only after the gas had already begun pouring in. Some of the victims were reported to have been unable to don breathing kits before they suffocated.

Igor Kurdin, a former Typhoon-class submarine commander and the current head of the St. Petersburg Submariners Club, attributed the high casualty count to the presence of a large number of civilian specialists on the submarine at the time of the accident. 17 of 20 people who perished in the accident were civilians. He noted that civilian observers would be untrained in the proper response to the release of the boat's fire fighting gas, which would be preceded by a specific light and sound signal, after which all on board are supposed to put on oxygen masks to allow them to survive during the 30 minute period required to ventilate the compartments before they can be reopened. In addition, because the accident occurred at 8:30 PM many of the civilian specialists and crewmen would likely have been asleep, and unable to don their oxygen masks in time. The accident was the country's worst since 2000, when torpedo explosions sank another Russian nuclear submarine, Kursk, killing 118 people.

Mikhail Barabanov, editor-in-chief of Moscow Defense Brief, said that accidental discharge of the fire suppression system on submarines is common, but usually does not cause fatalities. However, Nerpa had a "crowd of civilians" on board and the boat was "overcrowded". His understanding was, "the fire alarm failed to work, so the passengers did not realize that the gas started to displace oxygen in the affected compartments." Some suggested that there had not been enough breathing kits available for the larger than usual number of people aboard, or that the civilians had not been properly trained in their use. Survivors stated that some breathing apparatuses had not worked or had failed after only a few minutes; some of the dead were reportedly found still wearing their breathing kits.