Posted on 01/11/2005 7:32:26 PM PST by neverdem
A nuclear attack submarine that ran aground Saturday in the South Pacific, killing one sailor and injuring 23 others, appears to have smashed into an undersea mountain that was not on its charts, Navy officials said yesterday.
The submarine, the San Francisco, was cruising at high speed - about 30 knots - and was more than 400 feet below the surface when the accident forced it to blow air into its emergency ballast tanks to surface.
Some of the tanks were damaged by the impact. One officer said the effort to keep the submarine afloat was initially "very touch and go."
The accident occurred 350 miles south of Guam, and the vessel returned to its base there under its own power yesterday. The Navy is investigating how the crash occurred.
The dead sailor was identified as Joseph A. Ashley, 24, of Akron, Ohio, a machinist's mate second class. Officials said he was thrown forward during the accident and hit his head on a metal pump casing, knocking him unconscious. He died on Sunday.
Other sailors were treated for broken bones, cuts and bruises. One hurt his back.
Navy officials said the vessel's hull was damaged but did not rupture. The nuclear reactor, which is in the back of the submarine, was not damaged.
The officials said navigational charts are prepared from both government and commercial soundings of the ocean depths, many dating back centuries. Given the vastness of the oceans, they said, there could still be small areas that were never properly charted or where earthquakes have altered the contours.
The officials said it appeared that the San Francisco, which was en route to Australia, had not strayed off course.
"The initial reports are that they were using the proper charts, and they were where they were supposed to be and at the depth they were supposed to be," said a former Navy officer who was briefed on the accident.
Investigators will check whether the crew made any errors, officials said.
The Navy began basing attack submarines in Guam in 2002. The San Francisco, with a crew of 137, is one of three operating from there.
During the cold war, attack submarines conducted regular surveillance off the Russian coast.
From the base in Guam, the submarines can easily monitor naval activities by China, which some military analysts view as a potential future rival. In recent years, China has been buying diesel-powered submarines from Russia and expanding its fleet of nuclear-powered vessels.
Similar accidents have happened before, in part because submarines typically do not use their active sonar systems, which emit loud pings, to navigate.
Instead, submarines try to operate silently, relying on undersea charts, checks with navigation satellites and passive sonar systems that pick up the noises of other vessels.
This is Bush's fault. He didn't have those charts updated because he was too fixated on Iraq. Impeach him now! :) Denote heavy sarcasm.
>A nuclear attack submarine that ran aground Saturday in the >South Pacific, killing one sailor and injuring 23 others, >appears to have smashed into an undersea mountain that was >not on its charts, Navy officials said yesterday.
I guess it's on it's charts now.
Ah, we still do use radar don't we? Heh heh heh...
I mean the chart story doesn't pass the sniff test does it?
I'm no submarine expert. Some of you guys with some knowledge on this pipe up. What gives?
I guess were lucky the sub isn't still on it!
Ah, sonar... LOL
I think you meant sonar.
Not when a sub is being stealthy.
sonar?
Wow, thanks! This will be a relief to sailors all over the world . . . of course the implication that this planet is still beyond our technology and "safest possible" is not always "safe enough" is a hard pill to swallow and something most Americans tend to forget.
You forgot to also add -- "This is the Captain's fault!"
At least this is absolutely what I've been assured is the case by numerous Free Republic posters (in prior postings here). Are they still maintaining that? I was "assured" (from reading what they said), that it wouldn't matter if an asteroid came down and hit the submarine, it would still be the captain's fault.
Regards,
Star Traveler
But you loose your stealth with the loud bang when you hit a mountain or something.
not the tsunami, the earthquake.
First thing that came to my mind...
But maybe the radar screen was already in use...for Playstation's 'John Madden's NFL '04'?
The story is perfectly plausible, actually.
1) Radar doesn't work underwater.
2) Subs almost never use active sonar. From some of the previous threads it's clear people don't really understand active and passive sonar and the difference between the two. Active sonar is sending out pulses and having them bounce back. However it gives away your position. Passive is simply listening with a microphone for noise.
You don't hear a seamount with Passive sonar. It just sits there.
3) The entire seafloor of the earth is NOT accurately mapped. You CANNOT map the seafloor in very fine detail with a satellite (another myth from a previous thread.)
4) There are a lot of underwater volcanoes, some unknown, in the Pacific. I'd need to no more precise details of where the collision was to really get a sense if it's possible it's a previously uncharted one that's gotten shallower.
And before this is brought up for the billionth time, no, the Sumatran quake had NOTHING to do with it. This collision was 7,000 miles from the quake. RIGHT where the quake occured it's possible parts of the seafloor might have moved upwards 20-40 feet. No quake of any size changes the seafloor 7,000 miles away.
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