History: Bermuda’s 1986 “Maritime Chernobyl”
On October 3, 1986 while on patrol 680 miles northeast of Bermuda, the 10,000 ton, 425-foot long Soviet Yankee Class Ballistic Missile Submarine K-219 suffered an explosion and fire in one of her 16 missile tubes caused by a seal failure which allowed seawater to leak in and mix with residue from the missile’s liquid fuel.
Three members of the submarine’s 113-man crew were killed in the devastating blast and a fourth, Sergei Preminin, died when he volunteered to shut down the submarine’s two nuclear reactions by hand and was trapped in the reactor compartment.
There were fears an uncontrolled chain reaction in the submarine’s damaged reactors could “cook off” the 34 independently targetable warheads the K-219′s missiles were armed with.
This would have caused a cataclysmic nuclear explosion which would have poisoned the Gulf Stream and rained radioactive waste on Bermuda, killing most of the population and rendering the island uninhabitable for generations.
The crippled sub remained on the surface for three days while efforts were made by her crew to have the stricken vessel towed by a Soviet merchantman. However, on October 6 several gas leaks forced her Captain to order ship abandoned against orders from the Kremlin. Shortly after the crew went over the side the submarine rolled and sank, carrying both her nuclear reactors and nuclear warheads with her to the bottom of the Atlantic.
Throughout the Cold War there were often up to five Soviet submarines patrolling the waters near Bermuda. Submarine-launched Soviet ballistic missiles fired from the Bermuda area would have only taken about 16 minutes to reach military and civilian targets along the US East Coast. Soviet submarines were not withdrawn from the Bermuda “patrol box” until the late 1980s. As late as 1987 the former Soviet Union engaged in a large-scale submarine exercise near Bermuda.
The Soviet Union officially blamed the US Navy for the damage to K-219, stating that the damage resulted from a collision with the submarine USS ‘Augusta’, which was trailing the East Bloc vessel at the time.
The US Navy denies this and points to a previous similar missile tube mishap on the sub as evidence that the Soviet vessel was in poor condition. To date, there have been no public efforts to remove the nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel from the sub which lies at a depth of some 18,000 feet.
At the time environmental group Greenpeace described the sinking as “a maritime Chernobyl”, a reference to the catastrophic April, 1986 accident at a Soviet nuclear power plant which released massive amounts of radioactivity into the surrounding environment and is blamed for causing thousands of deaths.
But then Premier Sir John Swan was assured by British military and scientific experts the sub wreck posed no threat to Bermuda. Fears the K-219 could leak radioactive waste into the ocean causing health hazards for Bermudians and an environmental threat to our marine life were later described as “about zero” by the Bermuda Biological Station.
However, there are unconfirmed reports the Russian Navy still performs periodic testing of the surrounding seabed, flora and faunae for radiation from the sub’s hull in association with scientists from the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts.
Recently a correspondent for the Russian newspaper “Pravda” marked the 24th anniversary of the disaster, talking to surviving crew members of the submarine about the disaster.
“On October 3, 1986, the submarine K-219 had been in the autonomous navigation for about 30 days,” reported the newspaper. “After surfacing for a communication session and determining its location, the submarine submerged to to periscope position.
“And suddenly water gushed from one of the missile silos on the left side of the ship. An explosion shook the ship … pressure crushed the body of a missile. Water began to come into the bay. Three people — the commander of the missile warhead compartment, and two sailors – were killed immediately.
“An emergency alert was announced on the submarine, it emerged. Despite sealing the compartments and the struggle for survival, a poisonous orange-coloured fog from the components of rocket fuel spread through the damaged submarine. Many sailors were poisoned by these nitrogen oxide fumes. In some areas, the pollution level exceeded the legal limits by two to three thousands of times.
“There were several attempts to drain the fuel components and pump the missile silos with seawater. But the main missile specialists died in the explosion. The task remained unfulfilled.
“The crew fought to save the ship for nearly 14 hours when the 6th compartment sent a report to the central office: there was a fire in the 5th compartment; a gray-brown smoke was visible. Fifty minutes after that reactor protection got activated. Compensating gratings built to shut down the reactor were to automatically go down. However, this did not happen, they got stuck.
“The drives of the compensating gratings received no power. From the moment that the emergency protection was triggered, it became clear that they will not be able to get the power to the compensating gratings, everyone clearly understood that the most important thing was to shut down the reactor.
“The compensating gratings had to be manually dropped with a special handle — this was provided by the design. Sailor Sergei Preminin, who lowered the compensating gratings, remained in the reactor compartment forever as the bulkhead doors got locked under pressure. He went down with the ship.
“ When it became clear that the submarine cannot be saved, that even in tow it would not get to the nearest base, the crew abandoned the ship. The struggle for survival continued 77 hours 38 minutes. The commander, Captain of the 2nd Rank Igor Britain was the last to leave the ship on October 6, at 11:00am. And at11.03am K-219 sank, carrying in its womb the sailor-hero Sergei Preminin to the depth of nearly four kilometers.
“The crew and the bodies of three sailors killed on the submarine were delivered to nearby Cuba. Then the crew was brought to the Soviet Union, and for nearly a year the crew was dragged in for questioning by special investigators. The terrible accident was deemed secret, the crew members had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The Soviet media was silent, despite this being the highly publicised period of Gorbachev’s glasnost (reform) in the USSR.
“… Any heroic deed has a surprising property: made by a single man, it subsequently ceases to belong to its creator. The deed becomes a national treasure, increasing the spiritual wealth of the people who stand in one row with cultural, scientific and economic values.
“Let us not shy away from lofty words. We are not used to using them lately. Intentional or unintentional neglect of heroic deeds like that of the K-219 sailor Sergei Preminin is not as innocuous as it might seem: it is tantamount to squandering the national wealth. Those who respect their country cannot allow that. Glory to the submariners, both Soviet and Russian!”
