Seven russians trapped in a submarine, 24 hours left, what a terrible way to die.

Trouble is it's a rescue Sub, escape hatches are on the bottom, hope they ask for help this time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4747783.stm

190m.... that's a SERIOUS technical (mixed breathing gas, rebreathers, different 'back gas' plus horrendous decompression stops lasting several hours) dive, but is just about possible. Get some guys to swim down there & attach a rope, surface equipment can then lift it out/nearer the surface and things become a lot easier.

Fingers crossed for them. :|

I thought this was gonna be a joke!!!!

Good luck to them- hope they get out ok!!!

Is it really possible to swim over 600 feet ? If it is then why are they not down there ? The news said it was too deep, I have no idea about diving so relyin on others info here.
Why send navy ships from china & US if they can swim ?

I'm no expert on this topic but I think the problem is the difference in pressure between the surface and where they are now, so that they cannot just swim "up" to the surface without severe, fatal presuure issues.

I might well be wrong mind, but as least that's what i gathered from watching The Abyss.........

Originally posted by Lindseyw
Is it really possible to swim over 600 feet ? If it is then why are they not down there ? The news said it was too deep, I have no idea about diving so relyin on others info here.
Why send navy ships from china & US if they can swim ?

Yes but even if they could swim down, how can they get them out, the escape hatches are on the bottom , as it's a rescue sub, wouldn't they have to get the whole thing up ?

Originally posted by Lindseyw
Is it really possible to swim over 600 feet ? If it is then why are they not down there ? The news said it was too deep, I have no idea about diving so relyin on others info here.
Why send navy ships from china & US if they can swim ?

Swim, no, extremely qualified and experienced technical dive - yes. A friend of mine had dived to over 100m before on trimix (an Oxygen, Helium and Nitrogen mix very precisely engineered to be breathable at that depth (but if you tried to breathe it at the surface you'd pass out - it's very complecated)).
The trouble is, roughly speaking, the deeper you want to go the harder it gets, and it's not a linear thing either - e.g. going to 200m isn't twice as hard as 100m, it's more like 100 times as hard. So althought it may be possible, it's certainly not easy, demands a lot of very sepcialis equipment, depends on a mere handful of particular people in the world being available/contactable, and it's still very, very risky - i.e. a last resort.

The other problem is that without being able to speak for other countries Navys, I think our guys for example are only normally qualified/experienced to dive to the 30~50m range. 190m simply isn't possible for them/their equipment.

I assume they are sending lots of ships to keep as many options open and get as many bits of equipment and skilled poeple to the scene as possible - and good luck to them. :(

Ok so in theory your idea of swimming down & tying a 'rope' to is surely should work, although I appreciate in a much more technical manner ?

Originally posted by Saifa
I'm no expert on this topic but I think the problem is the difference in pressure between the surface and where they are now, so that they cannot just swim "up" to the surface without severe, fatal presuure issues.

I might well be wrong mind, but as least that's what i gathered from watching The Abyss.........

If they are not in a presurised environment (and most sub aren't pressurised cos you might as well scuba dive in that case) then they could just get out and swim for it, if it weren't for the fact they're just too deep - the minute they equalised the pressure in the sub (1st of all it would almost fill with water, but also) the very air they were breathing would poison them and/or make them extremely delerious. Plus it's just too far to swim on 1 breath. :(

It's possible from 30m, submariners practice before they're allowed on subs. You might be able to streatch it to maybe 50m, but I wouldn't like to try and at 190m it's simply not an option unfortunately :(

Originally posted by Saifa
I'm no expert on this topic but I think the problem is the difference in pressure between the surface and where they are now, so that they cannot just swim "up" to the surface without severe, fatal presuure issues.

I might well be wrong mind, but as least that's what i gathered from watching The Abyss.........

I think your right, I too base my entire underwater knowledge on The Abyss.

Originally posted by Lindseyw
Ok so in theory your idea of swimming down & tying a 'rope' to is surely should work, although I appreciate in a much more technical manner ?

I reckon, if they can get the right guys (including many support divers) and equipment on standby. I'm not 100% sure they could push technical diving it to 190m - I'm not sure of it's maximums, but they've certainly done extensive dives to ~150m before, so it's got to be worth thinking about if all else fails.

Hopefully they can just drag a line/big magnet onto is from the surface and bring it a bit closer to the surface to open up more options.

Originally posted by poppins
Yes but even if they could swim down, how can they get them out, the escape hatches are on the bottom , as it's a rescue sub, wouldn't they have to get the whole thing up ?

poppins, what are you on about.

It may have hatches on the bottom for latching onto stranded subs, but it also has a conning tower, and in the pic on the bbc website, there is clearly someone standing in it.

Most submarines have hatches on the top to enable the crew to get in and out without diving underwater.....

Sorry Phan:loopy: , didn't know about a conning tower.

This might sound stupid but...

... what about lowering a really big magnet on a long chain and pulling it up?

Originally posted by Zamo
This might sound stupid but...

... what about lowering a really big magnet on a long chain and pulling it up?

That might just work if it wasn't a titanium hulled vessel. :(

Britsh Robot saved all 7 crew members, alive and well .

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
That might just work if it wasn't a titanium hulled vessel. :(

Or what about lowering a big hook on a chain? They could also send it down with an robot mini-sub (remotly controlled from the surface) to attach it?

(I am sure there are good reasons why they can't do this).

Does anyone know what the current SP is? Are they still alive?

EDIT:

Ah, sorry, didn't see previous post, all escaped alive!!

:)

The news story is here. (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-08-07T090754Z_01_SPI529032_RTRUKOC_0_RUSSIA-SUBMARINE.xml)

Some good news for a change! :)

It seems the actuall depth at what this sub is has caused the main problem. Is it me tho but dont the russians have loads probs with there subs?.

Originally posted by brooksy
It seems the actuall depth at what this sub is has caused the main problem. Is it me tho but dont the russians have loads probs with there subs?.

Yeh, they get weighed down by the sheer amount of vodka...

Joel