Sailors saved

The crew of the Russian Navy bathyscaphe, who had been in underwater captivity for almost three days, was freed on Sunday with the help of the British deep-sea submersible Scorpion. The military submersible floated to the surface off the coast of Kamchatka at 7.25 Moscow time, Deputy Chief of the Main Staff of the Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Pepelyaev told RIA Novosti. According to him, the health of all members of the rescued crew of the bathyscaphe is normal, they left the apparatus on their own. “Thus the rescue operation is over,” the admiral said.

On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting in Moscow with the participation of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev. Immediately after the meeting, on the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, the head of the military department flew to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, where he held a coordination meeting at the headquarters of the Joint Group of Troops and Forces in northeast Russia, at which he set the task of completing the rescue operation on Sunday. After that, he departed for Berezovaya Bay aboard the small rocket ship Razliv. Almost simultaneously with it, the Russian rescue ship KIL-27 arrived in the disaster area, on board of which were British rescuers who had arrived the day before on a special flight from Glasgow with the deep-sea robotic vehicle Scorpion-45. At 2.43 Moscow time, the Scorpion, launched into the water, established visual contact with the Russian bathyscaphe using television cameras. At 3.05 Moscow time, Scorpion began cutting the main cable holding the Russian underwater vehicle AS-28 at depth. “At 2.40 Moscow time, the crew received a command via underwater communication to be ready for an emergency ascent,” said Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Igor Dygalo. “The crew confirmed their readiness for an emergency ascent.” By 5.35 Moscow time the last cable was cut, and the AS-28 bathyscaphe began to be freed from the remains of the fishing net. The bathyscaphe surfaced off the coast of Kamchatka at 7.25 Moscow time.