One of my former students was aboard a sub that happened to be in the neighborhood when this happened. There were rumors at the time that his sub had to have repairs in Scotland afterwards, but naturally he had nothing to say about any of it.
I am struck by how serious depth in water becomes even over what seems a trivial distance. Not 400 feet deep and rescue was impossible.
$1.2 billion and they couldn’t put a tow hook on it?
Put in perspective, the water wasn’t as deep as the submarine was long. If you stood it on end, about 50 feet would have been sticking out of the water. But those poor sailors might as well have been on the far side of the moon.
Not impossible at all. In the end political dithering killed the surviving crew. The Russian rescue craft were useless from lack of maintenance. Clinton wanted to help but was poorly advised to stand down. We could have had our people waiting within sight for when the Russian government swallowed their pride. I got this info from an American DSRV driver.