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Divers abandon body search in stern of Kursk wreck
Divers searching for bodies of crewmen inside the Russian submarine Kursk on Tuesday abandoned work in the stern of the wreck after recovering 12 of 23 men who died in its flooded ninth section.
Divers searching for bodies of crewmen inside the Russian submarine Kursk on Tuesday abandoned work in the stern of the wreck after recovering 12 of 23 men who died in its flooded ninth section.
The Russian and Norwegian teams working there since Thursday had done ''everything in their power,'' Navy Spokesman Igor Dygalo told the Interfax news agency.
''Work will continue to make a technical opening into the third section of the submarine,'' he said.
Dygalo did not say if more bodies had been recovered from the rear sections of the wreck other than the 12 confirmed, or if the narrow confines had prevented further work there.
The divers sealed the emergency escape hatch in the ninth compartment and the connecting passage into the eighth section. Access holes cut in the hull of the Kursk were also closed. After formal identification was made, the body of Lieutenant-Captain Dmitry Kolesnikov was flown on Tuesday from the Kursk's Arctic homeport of Severomorsk to St Petersburg for burial, Interfax said.
Kolesnikov was among the first sailors recovered and his uniform carried a note detailing the last moments of 23 survivors of the explosions that devastated the submarine on August 12.
The Kursk sank in the Barents Sea with all 118 crewmen.
Dygalo did not say if more bodies had been recovered from the rear sections of the wreck other than the 12 confirmed, or if the narrow confines had prevented further work there.
The divers sealed the emergency escape hatch in the ninth compartment and the connecting passage into the eighth section. Access holes cut in the hull of the Kursk were also closed. After formal identification was made, the body of Lieutenant-Captain Dmitry Kolesnikov was flown on Tuesday from the Kursk's Arctic homeport of Severomorsk to St Petersburg for burial, Interfax said.
Kolesnikov was among the first sailors recovered and his uniform carried a note detailing the last moments of 23 survivors of the explosions that devastated the submarine on August 12.
The Kursk sank in the Barents Sea with all 118 crewmen.
Bureau Report