USSR:
Project 667AU Nalim (NATO Yankee) class ballistic missile submarine
K-219 was lost on 6 October 1986 after an explosion and fire on board. This boat had been at sea near Bermuda, and she sank from loss of
buoyancy because of flooding. Four of her sailors died before rescue ships arrived
.
US Navy photo of K-219 on the surface after suffering a 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 USS Augusta.Although
Augusta was operating within the area, both the
United States Navy and the commander of
K-219, Captain Second Rank
Igor Britanov, deny that a collision took place.
Shortly after 0530
Moscow time, seawater leaking into silo six of
K-219 reacted with missile fuel, producing
chlorine and
nitrogen dioxide gases and sufficient heat to explosively decompose additional fuming
nitric acid 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
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 40 metres (130 ft) to eventually reach a depth in excess of 300 metres (980 ft). 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 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 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, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) 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's 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 at a depth of about 6,000 m (18,000 ft). Britanov abandoned ship shortly before the sinking.
K-219's full complement of nuclear weapons was lost along with the vessel
