Posted on 03/22/2007 6:55:42 PM PDT by SandRat
3/22/2007 - ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska (AFNEWS) -- Airmen in Alaska came through for a wounded British Sailor March 21 when he was injured during a deadly explosion aboard the Royal Navy submarine HMS Tireless operating in Arctic waters north of Prudhoe Bay.
The submarine experienced an explosion of a self contained oxygen generation candle that killed two Sailors and injured the third late March 20 while conducting a joint U.S. United Kingdom exercise.
A civilian helicopter contracted by exercise organizers transported the injured Sailor from the scene to the town of Deadhorse, where an Alaska Air National Guard HC-130 aircraft from the 211th Rescue Squadron with pararescuemen aboard from the 212th Rescue Squadron evacuated the injured man.
The patient and a naval medical officer were transported to Kulis Air National Guard Base in Anchorage where an ambulance waited. They were immediately driven to a local civilian hospital for treatment.
The sailor was greeted by a familiar accent when British exchange officer, Wing Commander Geoff Yapp, assigned to Alaska NORAD Region's 611th Air Operations Squadron, met him at the hospital. As the senior British officer in the area, Commander Yapp was contacted while on leave and told of the incident. He quickly returned to Anchorage and met up with his countryman to help him sort out details such as travel home and communication with loved ones back in the United Kingdom.
The injured Sailor was eventually transported to the Elmendorf's hospital for treatment and to await travel home.
Our Troops Coming to the Rescue again!
Good job!
Might give a little credit to British submariners doing a dangerous and difficult job.
We had Oxygen Breathing Apparatus on the old sub which used a candle that when burning generated oxygen so one could survive in a toxic gas environement. I believe that jet that nose-dived into the Florida 'glades was filled up with smoke due to similar canisters burning in the cargo hold.
I wonder if this is what happened to the unfortunate limey bubbleheads?
That's the same sort of oxygen generating candle that caught fire and nearly destroyed the Mir space station.
I forget the chemical names but have heard it referred to as basically low-intensity rocket fuel.
The Officer Exchange Programme again...
An oxygen candle furnace can in fact be very dangerous, if it is not properly sealed before the candle is lit. I believe it burns at over 1000 degrees (I could be wrong about that). I still haven't heard which piece of equipment exploded--It sounds to me like it was the Oxygen Generator, otherwise affectionately known as "The Bomb" to many of us.
limey bubbleheads...
The thinking was that one of the candles was dropped or fell over and ignited the oil floating on the water in the oxygen rich compartment.
How does it work? Does the generator split CO2? And why is it called a candle?
O2 candles are an entirely different thing. They're cannisters of sodium chlorate. The cans are placed in a hopper, opened and lit (iron is used as well to maintain the temperature high enough to break down the NaClO3 - about 600 degrees). The chorate is broken down into salt and oxygen - making it a relatively safe way to get oxygen.
They can be dangerous if they're inadvertently lit outside of a hopper. They'll burn through just about anything and you can't use water to put hem out.
You must have had a lousy bunch of A-gangers :-)
To be fair to A-Gang, the IC-men did their part too. But four boats, four quasi-operational bombs - seems like a trend to me. :)
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