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Working against time: Divers seek to break into bow

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November 2, 2000 

MURMANSK, Russia (AP) - Russian and Norwegian divers extended their working hours during a spell of clear, frosty weather over the Barents Sea on Wednesday, struggling to search the sunken nuclear submarine Kursk before storms again set in.

After retrieving 12 bodies from the stern of the wreck in the Arctic depths, the divers sealed the entrances to the rear compartments, and moved their search to the mangled front.

The fore sections of the Kursk were ripped apart by a huge explosion that sank the vessel on Aug. 12, and officials initially said no remains were likely to be found in the bow. All 118 seamen aboard the Kursk were killed, and so far there seem to be no clues about what caused the disaster.

Russian media and other observers have speculated that the navy may be seeking to recover sensitive military equipment and documents that could shed light on what caused the tragedy, before heavy storms put the Kursk out of reach for months.

However, naval officials insist that they're looking for bodies. The third compartment, where divers were working on Wednesday, was the location of a rescue vehicle that was designed to carry seamen to the surface in case of emergency.

A note found on the body of one of the Kursk's officers, Lt. Dmitry Kolesnikov, said that 23 sailors who had survived the initial explosions moved to the stern of the vessel after the sinking. Several attempted to use an escape hatch there, he said.

Divers may be searching for evidence of a similar escape attempt at the other end of the submarine, which could indicate that more than 23 seamen had survived at least the first moments of the disaster.

Russian and Norwegian divers have removed the rubber coating from the hull over the third compartment in the Kursk's fore part, and have cut a hole in the thinner, outer hull of the submarine, Northern Fleet spokesman Vladimir Navrotsky said Wednesday. The divers were clearing obstacles from between the Kursk's two hulls, and were planning to begin cutting the thick steel of the inner hull on Thursday, Navrotsky said.

The divers' shifts were extended from four to six hours under water, as they worked against time to get inside the fore part of the wreck, Navrotsky said.

"Time is pressing, as the weather can sour again," he said.

The heavy fogs that had blanketed the Arctic site for days have lifted, and storms have subsided. The lull is expected to last for another two-three days, Navrotsky said.

The last eight bodies retrieved from the submarine were delivered by ship to a laboratory in Severomorsk, the headquarters of the Northern Fleet, on Tuesday. Four had been delivered earlier by helicopter.

Four of the 12 bodies been identified, Navrotsky said. Kolesnikov's remains were flown to his native St. Petersburg for burial, but the identity of the other three sailors was not being released.

Russian officials have focused on the theory that the blasts were set off by a collision with another, possibly foreign, ship during exercises in the Barents Sea. But others have said the most likely cause was a torpedo exploding in its tube.