Navy Commander stands for submariners charged of Nerpa accident

16.08.2011 Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky was questioned at the court about the accident happened to SSN Nerpa, St. Petersburg Submariners' Club told to Central Navy Portal.

Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky witnessed for the prosecution at the court session held on Aug 15. According to a representative of St. Petersburg Submariners' Club, Vysotsky answered questions about readiness of the sub for sortie. The admiral took a side with defense, having witnessed that all servicemen on board SSN Nerpa and ashore acted within their authorities, and issues of the sub's operability were within responsibility of the shipyard.

"There were no excess of service power in actions of the submarine's commanding officer", confirmed Vladimir Vysotsky.

According to the admiral, civilian experts who were on board the sub during the tragedy could activate the firefighting system which resulted in toxic gas entering compartments. "Latent defects were not completely revealed by the trial crew, and the sub's commanding officer must not be directly charged of that", reports Izvestia citing Vysotsky. "Commanding officer is responsible for general readiness but not for particular actions of certain person", said the admiral.

Answering the question about possible reasons of the tragedy, Russian Navy CIC agreed it could be a human factor. Recall that on Nov 8, 2008 an accident happened to SSN Nerpa in the Sea of Japan as a result of unauthorized operation of firefighting system; there were 208 persons on board the sub, including 127 civilian experts. As for Vysotsky, each of them could formally activate the firefighting system.

The day before, former Deputy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Mikhail Zakharenko also spoke in favor of Nerpa's commanding officer Capt 1 rank Dmitry Lavrentiev and hold engineer Dmitry Grobov.

Ex-commanders of Russian Navy Vladimir Kuroyedov and Vladimir Masorin were called for evidence as well. However, they failed arrive in the courtroom because of officially confirmed illness.

Examination of witnesses for defense started on Aug 16; they are officers heading the sub's departments.

Recall that on Nov 8, 2008 nuclear-powered attack submarine K-152 Nerpa left the basin of Zvezda Shipyard (Bolshoi Kamen, Far East) to carry out torpedo firing under state acceptance testing program. Unauthorized operation of firefighting system suddenly occurred in the second compartment. Consequently, maximum allowable concentration became 300 times higher. Twenty persons died (3 military servicemen and 17 civilians), 21 got burn on respiratory tract, suffocated, and frostbitten. The Procuracy initiated criminal case against the submarine's commanding officer Capt 1 rank Dmitry Lavrentiev and hold engineer Seaman Dmitry Grobov.