The first nuclear submarine of its kind was launched in 1954. A formidable weapon in the world's oceans, submarines pose a danger to humanity and their own crews. A fire on the Russian Defense Ministry's deep-sea submersible Losharik on July 1 of this year killed 14 naval personnel. In light of this, we decided to recall the 10 worst submarine accidents.
10. SS-109 (USS S-4), USA (1927)
Until 1944, submarines spent most of their service above water, diving only to attack or evade the enemy. The American SS-109 sank off Cape Cod after being rammed by a Coast Guard ship. Forty servicemen died as a result. Amazingly, the submarine returned to service a year after the accident and served until its decommissioning in 1936.
9. "Pike" C117, USSR (1952)
The C117 was the progenitor of one of the world's largest submarines. Fifty-two sailors went missing when the Soviet diesel-electric submarine sank with torpedoes attached. The cause of the disaster and the ship's location remain unknown to this day. The incident occurred in December 1952 during preparations for training maneuvers in the Sea of Japan.
Before reaching the training area, the S-117 commander reported that the starboard engine was malfunctioning, so the combat unit was proceeding to its designated area using only diesel power. After some time, the captain reported that the problem had been resolved. After that, there was no further contact with the crew. The search for the Shchuka, which continued until 1953, came to nothing.
8. "Thresher" SSN-593, USA, (1963)
The sinking of an American nuclear-powered submarine claimed 129 lives during exercises off the coast of Massachusetts, USA. SSN-593 had gone to sea to conduct hull strength tests at extreme depths. Due to mechanical damage to the hull, the submarine sank rapidly and exploded underwater at a depth of 732 meters. As photographs from the accident site at a depth of 2.5 kilometers show, the explosion was powerful and scattered large debris in a 300-meter radius circle.
7. K129, USSR (1968)
The K-129, a diesel-powered submarine armed with nuclear warheads, sank on March 8, 1968, in the Pacific Ocean (near Hawaii), along with a crew of between 96 and 98 submariners (estimates vary). The cause of the accident remains unsolved, but several theories have been put forward, one of which is a collision with an unknown U.S. ship.
According to the official report of the US Navy, which successfully located the K-129 in 1974, an onboard explosion was to blame for the tragic accident that befell the Soviet submarine. While the US Navy was attempting to raise the vessel, the submarine broke into two pieces, but some large components were successfully transported to an enemy naval base. During their examination, the bodies of six Soviet sailors were recovered, and the Americans later buried them at sea with full honors.
6. Scorpio SSN-589, USA (1968)
The US Navy lost its second submarine and 99 sailors on May 21, 1968, in the Atlantic Ocean 740 km southwest of the Azores. The crew was scheduled to return to base within five days, but fate decreed otherwise. A futile search for the sunken submersible, involving approximately 60 vessels and 30 aircraft, lasted for nearly six months. Scorpion was soon found at a depth of approximately 3,000 meters using sonar.
As often happens, the cause of the disaster remains unknown. A torpedo detonation was considered the most likely explanation, but some experts saw this as a carefully concealed fact that the Scorpion had been destroyed by the Soviet submarine fleet.
5. K-8 (project 627A «KIT»), USSR (1970)
The first tragic loss of the Soviet nuclear navy was the sinking of the K-8, along with all 52 people on board. On April 12, 1970, while on patrol in the Mediterranean, the submarine was ordered to redeploy to the Bay of Biscay to participate in a large-scale exercise known as "Okean-70.".
The ship's primary mission was to identify potential enemy forces attempting to penetrate the USSR's maritime borders underwater. The nuclear-powered vessel sank before the start of training exercises scheduled for April 14, following a fatal fire. The K-8 "KIT" sank 500 km from Spain, having lost longitudinal stability and all buoyancy. While perishing, the crew managed to neutralize the nuclear reactors.
4. K-278 Komsomolets (Project 685 Plavnik), USSR (1989)
42 Soviet soldiers died a heroic death (mostly from hypothermia), 27 crew members were saved.
The third-generation nuclear submarine, equipped with fast-loading torpedo tubes, held the record for the deepest dive among all submarines at the time—1,027 meters—set in 1985. Despite its capabilities, the Komsomolets sank in the Norwegian Sea after a fire broke out in two adjacent compartments.
It happened on April 7, 1989, when the submarine was traveling at 14.8 km/h (8 knots) at a shallow depth of 380 meters. The accident damaged the main ballast tanks, causing the submarine to fill with seawater.
3. Kursk K-141 (Project 949A Antey), Russian Federation (2000)
The nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine's mission was tragically cut short on August 12, 2000, during tactical exercises in the Barents Sea at a depth of just over 100 meters. A fuel leak from a torpedo engine caused two fatal explosions, and most of the 118 crew members on board perished suddenly.
Twenty-three submariners managed to escape to an undamaged compartment in the rear, where they waited a long week for help to arrive. They died from lack of oxygen, before the rescue operation, which unfolded in the waters between Russia and Norway, could be successfully completed. In terms of submariner fatalities, this accident was one of the worst on nuclear submarines in the post-war history of the Russian Navy. "She sank"... That's how Vladimir Putin responded to an American journalist's pressing question, "What happened to the Russian submarine Kursk?" live on CNN.
The K-141 salvage process, which involved 20 countries and spanned 12 months, involved several stages. The cost of the search and salvage operation at the time was estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. After the ship's remains were recovered, 115 dead submariners were found and buried. Three sailors were never found. The submarine's potentially dangerous weapons and two nuclear fuel reactors were removed.
2. "Ming 361", China (2003)
On April 16, 2003, during a routine naval exercise in Bohai Bay (Yellow Sea, northeast China), the submarine Ming 361 experienced an emergency—a diesel engine failure. The malfunction led to a rapid decline in oxygen levels. The entire crew (70) subsequently died from asphyxiation.
It was then that Chinese authorities first publicized the submarine disaster. According to information released on May 2, 2003, Ming 361 was found by local fishermen who accidentally snagged the periscope in their nets nine days after the tragic incident.
1. San Juan, Argentina (2017)
The captain of the San Juan lost contact on November 15, 2017, after complaining of power problems. At the time, the submarine and its 44-man crew were en route from the naval base in Mar del Plata, 1,400 km from the Argentine capital. A day later, contact was lost. Almost two weeks after the submarine's disappearance, it was announced that the rescue operation was being called off, as oxygen supplies were estimated to last only a week.
The Argentine Navy submarine was discovered on the ocean floor using sonar only in November 2018, a year after it disappeared. The cause of the accident was recently revealed in a report by the German company that manufactured the sunken submarine. Experts believe the flooding began through a valve in the battery compartments. This caused a short circuit and, consequently, an explosion.
The commander of the missing Argentine submarine San Juan promised his mother before preparing for his final voyage that this would be his last trip to sea…