''K-219'' was a Project 667A
''Navaga''-class ballistic missile submarine (
NATO reporting name Yankee I) of the
Soviet Navy. It carried 16
R-27U liquid-fuel missiles powered by
UDMH
Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH; 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, НДМГ or codenamed Geptil) is a chemical compound with the formula H2NN(CH3)2 that is used as a rocket propellant. It is a colorless liquid, with a sharp, fishy, ammonia-like smell ...
with
nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and equipped with either 32 or 48 nuclear warheads.
''K-219'' was involved in what has become one of the most controversial submarine incidents during the
Cold War on Friday 3 October 1986. The 15-year-old vessel, which was on an otherwise routine
Cold War nuclear deterrence patrol in the North Atlantic northeast of
Bermuda
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, suffered an explosion and fire in a missile tube. While underway a submerged seal in a missile hatch cover failed, allowing high-pressure seawater to enter the missile tube and owing to the pressure differential rupture the missile fuel tanks, allowing missile's liquid fuel to mix and ultimately combust. Though there was no official announcement, the Soviet Union claimed the leak was caused by a collision with the
submarine .
Although ''Augusta'' was operating within the area, both the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
and the commander of ''K-219'', Captain Second Rank
Igor Britanov
Captain Second Rank Igor Anatolievich Britanov, Soviet Navy was the captain of the Soviet missile submarine ''K-219'' when it sank off the coast of Bermuda on October 3, 1986.
The incident on ''K-219''
That day, while on patrol northeast of Ber ...
, deny that a collision took place.
The incident was novelized in the book
''Hostile Waters'', which reconstructed the incident from descriptions by the survivors, ships' logs, the official investigations, and participants both ashore and afloat from the Soviet and the American sides.
Explosion
Shortly after 0530
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
time, seawater leaking into silo six of ''K-219'' reacted with missile fuel, producing
chlorine
Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine i ...
and
nitrogen dioxide
Nitrogen dioxide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is one of several nitrogen oxides. is an intermediate in the industrial synthesis of nitric acid, millions of tons of which are produced each year for use primarily in the productio ...
gases and sufficient heat to explosively decompose additional fuming
nitric acid
Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available nitri ...
to produce more nitrogen dioxide gas. ''K-219'' weapons officer Alexander Petrachkov attempted to deal with this by disengaging the hatch cover and venting the missile tube to the sea. Shortly after 0532, an explosion occurred in the silo. ''K-219'' had previously experienced a similar event; one of her missile tubes was already disabled and welded shut, having been permanently sealed after an explosion caused by reaction between seawater leaking into the silo and missile fuel residue.
An article in ''Undersea warfare'' by Captain First Rank, Igor Kurdin, Russian Navy – ''K-219''s previous XO (
executive officer) – and Lieutenant Commander Wayne Grasdock, USN described the explosion occurrence as follows:
Two sailors were killed outright in the explosion, and a third died soon afterward from toxic gas poisoning. Through a breach in the hull, the vessel immediately started taking on sea water, quickly sinking from its original depth of to eventually reach a depth in excess of . Sealing all of the compartments and full engagement of the sea water pumps in the stricken compartments enabled the depth to be stabilised.
Up to 25 sailors were trapped in a sealed section, and it was only after a conference with his incident specialists that the Captain allowed the Chief Engineer to open the hatch and save the 25 lives. It could be seen from instruments that although the nuclear reactor should have automatically been shut down, it was not. Lt. Nikolai Belikov, one of the reactor control officers, entered the reactor compartment but ran out of oxygen after turning just one of the four rod assemblies on the first reactor. Twenty-year-old enlisted seaman
Sergei Preminin
Sergey Anatolievich Preminin (russian: Сергей Анатольевич Преминин; 18 October 1965 – 3 October 1986) was a Soviet Russian sailor who, after an explosion aboard nuclear submarine '' K-219'', prevented an impending nuclea ...
then volunteered to shut down the reactor by following the instructions of the Chief Engineer. Working with a full-face gas mask, he successfully shut down the reactor. A large fire had developed within the compartment, raising the pressure. When Preminin tried to reach his comrades on the other side of a door, the pressure difference prevented him from opening it, and he died of
asphyxiation
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that ca ...
in the reactor compartment.For his actions, Sergei Preminin was posthumously awarded the title ''
Hero of the Russian Federation.''
In a nuclear safe condition, and with sufficient stability to allow it to surface, Captain Britanov surfaced ''K-219'' on battery power alone. He was then ordered to have the ship towed by a Soviet freighter back to her home port of
Gadzhiyevo
Gadzhiyevo (russian: Гаджи́ево) is a town under the administrative jurisdiction of the closed administrative-territorial formation of Alexandrovsk in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. Population:
It was previously known as ''Yagelnaya Guba'' ( ...
, away. Although a towline was attached, towing attempts were unsuccessful, and after subsequent poison gas leaks into the final aft compartments and against orders, Britanov ordered the crew to evacuate onto the towing ship, but remained aboard ''K-219'' himself.
Displeased with Britanov's inability to repair his submarine and continue his patrol, Moscow ordered Valery Pshenichny, ''K-219'' security officer, to assume command, transfer the surviving crew back to the submarine, and return to duty. Before those orders could be carried out the flooding reached a point beyond recovery and on 6 October 1986 the ''K-219'' sank to the bottom of the Hatteras
Abyssal Plain
An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between and . Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth's surface. ...
[ at a depth of about 6,000 m (18,000 ft). Britanov abandoned ship shortly before the sinking. ''K-219'' full complement of nuclear weapons was lost along with the vessel.
]
Aftermath
Preminin was posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Star for his bravery in securing the reactors. Britanov was charged with negligence, sabotage, and treason. He was never imprisoned, but waited for his trial in Sverdlovsk. On 30 May 1987, Defense Minister Sergey Sokolov was dismissed as a result of the Mathias Rust
Mathias Rust (born 1 June 1968) is a German aviator known for his flight that ended with a landing near Red Square in Moscow on 28 May 1987. A teenage amateur pilot, he flew from Helsinki, Finland, to Moscow, being tracked several times by Sovi ...
incident two days earlier, and replaced by Dmitry Yazov
Dmitry Timofeyevich Yazov (russian: Дми́трий Тимофе́евич Я́зов; 8 November 1924 – 25 February 2020) was a Marshal of the Soviet Union. A veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Yazov served as Minister of Defence from 1987 ...
; the charges against Britanov were subsequently dismissed.
In popular culture
In 1997, the British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
It was based on the book by the same name, which claimed to describe the loss of ''K-219''. In 2001, Captain Britanov filed suit, claiming Warner Bros. did not seek or get his permission to use his story or his character, and that the film did not portray the events accurately and made him look incompetent. After three years of hearing, the court ruled in Britanov's favor.