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CNN Sunday Morning

Salvage Crews Hope to Raise Sunken Russian Submarine in Three Weeks

Aired August 26, 2001 - 09:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN ANCHOR: Salvage crews in the Barents Sea hope to raise the Russian submarine Kursk in about three weeks. That is not a firm deadline and there are plenty of obstacles that can get in the way.

CNN's Ryan Chilcote has a report now from aboard the salvage vessel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Norwegian diving support ship and its crew enjoy a relatively calm morning on the Barents Sea and the Russian government allows journalists to visit the ship, the centerpiece of its operation to raise the sunken nuclear submarine.

The ship is anchored more than a football field above the Kursk and receives images from the seas down below.

BOB GREENWOOD, DSNO MAYO CAPTAIN: What you're looking at there is you're looking at two divers hat cameras. The end picture is the ROV camera, which is the remove observation vehicle, which launches off the far side of the vessel.

CHILCOTE: Those divers work in teams of three, cutting holes into the Kursk's double hull, preparing the nuclear submarine to be lifted in an operation to salvage the bodies of 106 sailors trapped inside.

Meanwhile, the next shift of divers wait for their turn in the ships special pressure chambers, ready to go at a moments notice. Work here goes around the clock.

The operation to raise the Kursk has become a race against time. Stormy weather unusual for the month of August has set in and is already causing delays.

The Russian commander remains confident they will complete their mission by the end of September, despite the recent setbacks.

"We're aiming for the period between September 24th and 29th, leaving us some room for possible bad weather in September," he says.

The Barents Sea storm season begins in October, and if the job isn't done by then, they may have to wait until next summer.

Ryan Chilcote, CNN, on the Barents Sea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLOCK: This is going to be an amazing operation and I want to get right to it with someone who is going to be participating in this, that's Richard Fiske. He is the director of Marine Operations at Oceaneering Technology. His company has helped in the recovery of airline crashes, such as TWA flight 800, and others.

Richard, I want to move right to it right now. This is a heck of an undertaking and tell me how it's going to begin. What is the plan?

RICHARD FISKE, OCEANEERING TECHNOLOGY: Well, Jeff, he plan involves a five step process. The first is survey of the area and development of a salvage plan, design, construction and testing of salvage equipment that is going to be used, and modification of a large pontoon barge, the Giant Four.

The next step involves cutting holes, which you've just reported on. That's being done. 26 holes in the top of the submarine.

The third step involves bringing the Giant Four and anchoring it over the submarine and then 26 bundles of wires will be lowered down and anchored into the holes in the top of the submarine using special hydraulic plugs.

FLOCK: So you can just hoist it up at that point?

FISKE: Well, when the weather is right the lines will be tensioned, the submarine hoisted up so that it's resting beneath the Giant Four, then the Giant Four will trip out of its moor and the combination will be towed at about three knots into Murmansk.

FLOCK: Give me, at the very latest, how soon do you expect to really start this in earnest?

FISKE: I'm not doing it. You would be better to get information from the Smith folks.

FLOCK: Right. Has anything like this -- you've done a lot of these sorts of things. Has anything like this, on this kind of a scale, been done before to your knowledge?

FISKE: Not that I could really address. I'm not aware of any. Right now, Smith is working with the U.S. Navy off Hawaii to raise the Ehime Maru from about 2,000 feet. That's a much smaller vessel, but it's on the order of raising large objects from the ocean.

FLOCK: And also, you've got this other problem of the nuclear reactor that is on board there. Now, they say that they have shut that down and it's OK, but what are the factors involved there and what are the worries?

FISKE: I'm not a nuclear expert. You need to talk to the right folks about that.

FLOCK: OK. Very good. In terms of the technology of just raising this sort of thing, I mean, we've talked about raising the Titanic, the Andrea Doria, someone had an idea about pumping ping-pong balls, I think it was, into the hull of the Doria to raise it up. What about the technology involved in this? Is this fairly common technology, despite the enormity of it?

FISKE: It is not common, it is well understood by both Mamoot (ph) and Smith International, the companies involved in the recovery. It's not common because it's not used a lot. When it is used, it is very effective. We're working at the absolute edge of the salvage envelope here.

FLOCK: Obviously, this is a very big ship. Now, you did, for example, some of the recovery, I understand, with regard to TWA 800. Am I right on that?

FISKE: Our company did, yes.

FLOCK: Your company did, yeah. Obviously, those are much smaller pieces, and this is just a tremendous undertaking of a very large, heavy piece of equipment, correct?

FISKE: Yes. These are -- TWA was an entirely different sort of operation, more along the lines of this operation was the recovery of the Confederate submarine, Hunley, off Charleston last summer, in which an intact vessel, only 39 feet long, granted, was recovered from fairly shallow water, intact, and moved into shore for work.

FLOCK: And, of course, that was a very fragile piece of equipment. This, theoretically, is going to be a lot more solid, so, I guess we'll see.

FISKE: It's going -- it is a lot more solid submarine, a lot more solid structure, but it's still going to be very difficult given the conditions, and the weather is going to be the major factor.

FLOCK: Richard Fiske, appreciate the time this morning and the perspective on it. And, of course, we will be watching as that operation continues and gets under way in earnest here in the coming weeks.

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