LONDON, 29 May 2008 — A stricken British nuclear submarine was adrift in the Red Sea last night with 112 crewmen trapped aboard. HMS Superb was submerged on a training exercise when it ran head-on into rocks, seriously damaging its sonar equipment.
According to London’s Daily Mirror, the terrified crew thought they had hit the ocean bed. “The vessel was at such a depth that when it hit, those on board thought they had hit the bottom of the ocean. There would have been a significant impact but the emergency procedures were quickly put into place,” the newspaper quoted a source as saying. “The crew were shaken but none are injured. With a nuclear reactor on board there are real fears for the stability of the vessel and the safety of those on board but tests showed everything was OK.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense confirmed no other vessel was involved and said the reactor was “completely unaffected”.
He added: “There were no casualties and the sub remains watertight and able to operate under her own power.”
Talking to The Mirror, Kate Hudson of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said: “This is yet another submarine crash. It must set alarm bells ringing at the Defense Ministry. As a result, what we have is like a floating nuclear power station, surrounded by high-explosives in the most sensitive region of the world.”
Navy experts were flying out to inspect the craft, which is sailing in international waters and unable to dive.
The 272-ft vessel was around 80 miles south of Suez when she grounded on an “underwater pinnacle” on Monday.
It is not known exactly what caused the collision. But it is believed an early probe showed the sub hit the rock head-on and ground to a halt. The source said it was likely it would be towed to a port in the Red Sea for repairs and the crew would be evacuated today.
The Superb joins a growing list of nuclear sub accidents. The most embarrassing for the British Royal Navy was only revealed recently, when it admitted HMS Trafalgar hit the seabed off Skye in Scotland.
A Defense Ministry report showed the £5million accident happened because someone put tracing paper over charts, obscuring vital symbols. In March 2007 the British Navy launched a probe into how a fault in an air purifier killed two sailors on HMS Tireless.
And in 1987 there was an accident at Coulport naval base in Strathclyde when a faulty Polaris missile was being unloaded from HMS Repulse.
According to the Royal Navy website, HMS Superb’s commanding officer is Commander Steve Drysdale from Miskin, near Cardiff.
