Freon killed sleeping crew on Russian sub

[unhappycamper]

A Soviet-built Akula-class nuclear submarine is moored at a harbor on the Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka, in this July 2007 file photo.


Freon killed sleeping crew on Russian sub
By Vladimir Isachenkov - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 11, 2008 17:38:52 EST

MOSCOW — Dozens of crewmen were fast asleep on a nuclear submarine when freezing Freon gas poured over them from a firefighting system, survivors said Tuesday in the first eyewitness accounts of the Russian submarine accident that killed 20 people.

The Nerpa submarine was undergoing sea trials Saturday in the Sea of Japan when its fire-extinguishing system switched on, spewing liquefied Freon gas that asphyxiated the victims and sent 21 others to the hospital. The submarine returned to its home port under its own power Sunday.

Survivors said they were completely caught off guard.

“A siren blared and Freon came streaming in immediately,” shipyard worker Viktor Rivk said on Russia’s NTV television, speaking from a hospital bed in the Pacific coast port of Vladivostok. He looked feeble and exhausted, and the bridge of his nose was bruised.

Other survivors said a siren warning the crew the firefighting system was turning on may somehow have been delayed.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_russia_submarine_111008/%2e