Posted on 05/05/2003 1:46:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The Chinese submarine accident in which 70 crew died may have been due to a malfunctioning diesel engine that sucked all the oxygen out of the hull, a Chinese Navy official says.
Investigators believe the crew died within two minutes, after submarine No.361 descended on a training mission two weeks ago. All the victims were found at their posts, and there were no signs of struggle, suggesting that death came upon the men quickly, the official said.
The accident occurred during a training mission on April 16, the official said, but was not discovered by the navy until 10 days later, when the submarine crew did not contact their base as expected. The crew had been instructed to maintain radio silence during training to practise concealing their location.
The Chinese military publicly attributed the tragedy to mechanical failure, giving no further explanation, but Western naval specialists familiar with diesel-powered submarines said the official's account was plausible.
The official said the submarine had charged its batteries from its diesel engine at the surface in preparation for descent. Diesel power is switched off in preparation for descent because diesel requires oxygen to burn, the specialists said.
In this case, mechanical failure is believed to have caused the diesel power to continue running, depriving the hull of its oxygen and suffocating the crew, the official said.
"That is very plausible, and I'm inclined to believe that's what happened," said retired admiral Lloyd Vasey, who served 36 years in the US Navy, 12 of them aboard diesel-powered submarines.
Mr Vasey said from Honolulu that "the first thing you do when you dive is you shut off the diesel because it sucks up a lot of air, switch to battery power and close the hatch. People don't forget to shut it down", he said of the diesel engine, which in Ming-class submarines is easily shut off.
Mechanical failure of the engine, air induction valve in the engine room, secondary air ducts, or a gasket were possible explanations, Mr Vasey said.
"But it's possible we may never know the cause."
The No.361 submarine was built in 1995, making it one of the newer of the Ming class that China produced from 1971 to 1996. Intended for patrols and coastal defence, it is copied from the decades-old Soviet Romeo class, which was based on a German U-boat produced in 1944.
The Ming class is considered obsolete by the Federation of American Scientists, but Mr Vasey said that he could see no reason for Beijing to retire its fleet of Ming-class submarines, now estimated at 13, because "accidents can happen to any subs".
The Ming class usually holds nine officers and 46 sailors, suggesting that other technicians or staff officers were aboard for this exercise.
The accident highlights vulnerability in China's ageing fleet of domestic and Russian submarines, estimated to number about 90.
Submarines are tactically useful for China, especially to enforce its claim on the island of Taiwan, because they are difficult to detect, and unseen submarines are a powerful deterrent to any enemy.
The Boston Globe
Now why is China doing that? They can't develop their own submarines that they have to buy them from the Soviets?
BUT they plan on orbiting the earth and trips into outerspace. All as their soldiers die using decades old equipment.
China Announces 2005 Space Plans --Say space arms race has begun***While building its space programs, China is also concerned that space could become an expensive battleground in any future conflict. Beijing is especially unhappy with U.S. plans to build systems to shield the United States from missile attack. (snip) ``Another arms race in outer space has begun since 1998, and we should be watchful,'' Huang said.***
(December 09, 2001) China's great leap forward: Space[Excerpt] "The space industry is not only a reflection of the comprehensive national strength but also an important tool for leaping over the traditional developing stage," said Liu Jibin, minister of China's Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
If China makes that leap, the country's civil and military space efforts could close the gap between East and West in years instead of decades. Technology is critical to China's development of bigger, better missiles and space-based defenses as well as the country's commercial ambitions. Market reforms and cheap labor already are turning a once-stagnant, planned economy into a powerhouse.
Signs of the transformation can be seen everywhere in China's cities. Bumper-to-bumper car traffic has replaced bicycle gridlock. McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken are almost as common as traditional roadside food stalls. Chairman Mao's wardrobe has been mothballed in favor of Western fashions. Handbills and posters are more likely to tout the qualities of European cigarettes than the virtues of class struggle.
One thing, however, hasn't changed: Most of China's space program remains closed to the outside world. Even so, a few Chinese officials are cautiously -- almost reluctantly -- beginning to open up.
A two-week tour of Chinese aerospace facilities this fall and talks with high-level managers, many of whom have been off-limits to Americans, revealed this about the country's mysterious manned program: China likely will launch its first astronaut sometime in 2003 after six or so unpiloted test flights of its manned spacecraft. The next test flight -- the third overall -- is expected to blast off before the end of January.
Preliminary design of a Chinese space station already is under way. A modest outpost with limited capabilities could be developed during the next decade.
And there's even talk of sending people to the moon and building lunar bases in the next decade. [End Excerpt]
(December 10, 2001) CHINA'S NEW FRONTIER China finds launches lucrative [Excerpt] There also were accusations -- adamantly denied -- that Loral's chairman influenced a Clinton administration licensing decision with a hefty donation to the Democratic National Committee. License approval eventually was shifted from the Commerce Department to the more restrictive State Department.
The Clinton White House announced in November 2000 that it would resume processing export licenses and extend China's launch privileges through 2001 after Beijing agreed to a missile nonproliferation pact. But the Bush administration says outstanding issues remain in implementing the nonproliferation agreement. New satellite export licenses remain on hold. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and three other lawmakers urged President Bush in July not to resume licensing under any condition. [End Excerpt]
CHINA'S NEW FRONTIER: U.S. threw out man who put China in space [Excerpt] As World War II wound down, Tsien was made a colonel in the U.S. Army Air Forces and sent to Europe in 1945. His mission: Size up the German V-2 rocket program developed by Hitler's Third Reich.
There, he met and interviewed young Wernher von Braun, the V-2 project's technical director who one day would become the visionary behind the Saturn V rocket that put America on the moon. During their meeting, Tsien asked von Braun to put down on paper German breakthroughs and future space goals. The resulting report is credited with helping inspire development of the first U.S. satellites.
After the war, Tsien became the youngest full professor on the faculty at MIT. During a 1947 visit to see his family in China, he met Jiang Ying, a glamorous aristocrat who studied music in Germany and was one of China's most celebrated young sopranos. Her father -- a military adviser for Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government -- was helping wage a civil war aimed at crushing Mao Tse Tung's communist rebels.
The couple married later that year and moved back to America. When Tsien re-entered the United States in Honolulu, he reflexively answered "no" to a question on an immigration form asking whether he had ever belonged to a group advocating overthrow of the U.S. government. [End Excerpt]
Red Dragon Rising: China's Space Program Driven by Military Ambitions***"If you look at the overall Chinese space program, they are pursuing everything from micro and mini-satellites, all the way up through a manned space program. Space is a major Chinese technology area that they feel they must develop and exploit," Cheng said. "They understand the importance of space, politically, economically and militarily. We need to understand that this is not some third-world country firing off a one-shot deal," he stressed.
Cheng said that China would trump the second-tier space powers by having their own human space launch capability, leaving behind Japan, India, and even the European Space Agency. "There would be a technological, political, sort of in-your-face aspect to it," Cheng said. "On the other hand, having a Shenzhou crew come back crispy-crittered would be a really bad move," Cheng added. In the larger picture, Cheng said, China's space agenda is a force to be reckoned with, adding: "We must remember here in the United States that the new frontier may not fly only the red, white, and blue. It's the fact that now we're seeing dragons in orbit."***
Report: China on schedule for manned launchBy JOE McDONALD, AP [Full Text] BEIJING -- China is sticking to plans for a manned space launch this year, confident its rockets are safe, the head of the country's main civilian space agency was quoted Friday as saying. The comments by Zhang Qingwei, president of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., to the China Daily newspaper were the highest-level affirmation yet of Chinese determination to go ahead with a manned flight. The communist government hasn't announced a launch date, but earlier reports put it in the second half of this year.
"China put into place its space program long ago, and it will stick to its schedule without being distracted," Zhang was quoted as saying. He was paraphrased as saying a manned launch would take place this year, though the report gave no details. The Chinese have not given any indication whether one or more taikonauts will be launched or how long the flight will last. However, the last unmanned flight of the Shenzhou capsule in January lasted for 108 orbits. Also, the Russian Soyuz capsule, on which the Shenzhou is based, can seat up to three people. A successful flight would make China only the third nation, after Russia and the United States, to send a human into space on its own.
Beijing is thought to have invested at least $1 billion in the program, a symbol of communist-led progress. The sum is large for a country with an annual income per person of about $700. The military-linked program, begun in 1992, operated until recently in almost total secrecy. But China has been emboldened by four test launches of its Shenzhou space capsule, the latest in January. "Technically there is no direct link between China's manned space program and U.S. missions, and China has developed an effective quality-control system in rocket and spacecraft manufacturing, launching and scientific research," the China Daily quoted Zhang as saying.
A spokesman at China Aerospace headquarters in Beijing couldn't confirm the report and said Zhang wasn't available to comment. However, earlier reports from state-controlled media about the space program have been confirmed by officials. The report Friday noted that China's Long March booster rockets have had 27 successful launches in the past seven years. [End]
Bump!
Are they planning to bring them back?
Mr Vasey is absolutely right. There are probably multiple ways to secure them, however I dont know Russian submarines, I know American submarines. I doubt this is the REAL way these sailors died, however.
It would take a while for this to happen. It would not be instant. A submarine has a main induction valve that allows air into the engine room for the diesels to operate on. Was it open? or Shut?.
In order for the diesel to operate, the valve had to be open, or a hatch had to be open. If not, a vacuum shutoff would occur, or the crewmembers would manually shut it down(while the vacuum rose, and their ears, sinus cavity, and eyes felt like they were going to be sucked out.Its not something that happens slowly and you dont know about, plus, it hurts really bad
The story insinuates this happened as they dove, yet the submarine was found on the surface. If they dove, the ship would have been negatively or neutrally bouyant, and would have stayed submerged. If they were on the surface, they would have had their hatches or main induction open and probably were exhausting through the muffler.
This leaves the critical moment when the hatches were shut and the main induction was closed for this event to occur properly in their timeline. If the diesel was left running while this occurred, as the hatches and main induction shut, the vacuum began to happen, and the crew knew by the pain they were feeling this happened. They had about 3 minutes or more to fix the problem before they lost consciousness, depending on how many diesels they had operating.
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