Russia's Prosecutor General Visits Kursk Wreck
Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov visited Tuesday the wreck of the Kursk nuclear submarine resting at the dock of Roslyakovo, near Murmansk, Itar-Tass news agency reported. Ustinov heads a 50-member group of crime experts and investigators from the Main Military Prosecutor's Office and the Northern Fleet.
Russian investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office and medical experts have started their unprecedented work on the Kursk. The recovery operation will start from the 9th compartment of the Kursk where the investigators hoping find at least 11 bodies.
The Kursk sank on August 12. All 118 Kursk crew died in the accident. Only 12 bodies were recovered during a salvage operation last October. During the October operation Russian rescue workers found a note in the pocket of a submariner identified as Lt. Dmitry Kolesnikov. The note confirmed that 23 sailors had remained alive for several hours after the explosions. The survivors gathered in the ninth compartment, hoping to get out through the escape hatch but it was badly damaged by the blasts and they remained trapped. They died a slow and torturous death by suffocation.
The investigators will start the search for submariners' bodies only after the sub is dried up. Even afterwards they will use special gas-masks, respirators and protective suits inside the wreck. The specialists have been trained to use the special equipment as they waited the sub to be docked. All this time they have been studying a similar Russia's submarine, which was relocated to Severomorsk.
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