- 4 months ago
Discovery Channel has featured the raising of the Kursk submarine in documentaries and series, such as the 2014 film The Raising of the Kursk and the series Salvaging the Kursk. These programs document the challenging, real-life salvage operation, which involved Dutch companies Mammoet and Smit International cutting off the damaged bow and lifting the main hull from the Barents Sea seabed using a specially designed barge and a system of hydraulic strand jacks, cables, and heave compensators
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Short filmTranscript
00:00In summer 2001, an international team assembles in Russia's Barents Sea to attempt the most difficult operation in the history of ocean salvage.
00:20The mission to raise a Russian nuclear submarine, the Kursk, victim of a violent disaster. An explosion that plunged a submarine almost two football fields long to the bottom of the sea.
00:44How this could have happened is a mystery that raising the sub may solve.
00:54Nothing like it has ever been attempted. To succeed, salvagers must summon a network of ships, divers, and the heaviest ocean lifting equipment in the world in their quest to raise the Kursk.
01:12The Barents Sea, far in the Russian north, is one of the harshest oceans on the planet.
01:40The Barents is hospitable for only a few short months each summer. By September, it's a frothing fury.
01:52On September 26th, when ocean salvagers aboard a massive barge arrive to lift the sunken submarine Kursk, they fear that they are too late.
02:10A twisting road has led to this dramatic day.
02:22For those who will attempt to raise the Kursk, it is now a battle against nature and time.
02:28The Kursk story begins a year earlier.
02:42August 10th, 2000.
02:44Dawn. The Barents Sea, above the Arctic Circle.
02:52In a restricted harbor, the nuclear submarine Kursk prepares for the largest war game in her six years of service.
03:00This place once symbolized terror to Western navies.
03:08It was home to the Soviet Union's fleet of 120 nuclear submarines.
03:14Now only 40 remain. The Kursk is among the newest and fastest.
03:22Two nuclear reactors give her a submerged speed of 28 knots.
03:28The Kursk carries a crew of 118 men.
03:32They are young and sharp. The finest crew in the fleet.
03:36In an era of decline in the Russian military, these men are proud.
03:41The Kursk symbolizes the future.
03:49The Kursk is an Oscar II class submarine. The largest attack sub ever built.
03:55Oh, it's huge. It's over 500 feet long. About 505 feet long.
04:01The Washington Monument, by comparison, is 555 feet high.
04:06It's taller than the Statue of Liberty is high.
04:11At 24,000 tons, the Kursk is over three times the size of her U.S. counterparts.
04:18Double hulled, she is built to withstand a direct hit from an enemy torpedo.
04:23Her designers consider her virtually indestructible.
04:32On August 10, 2000, the Kursk takes part in the largest Russian naval exercise in a decade.
04:40The entire Russian northern fleet is out in force, testing equipment and weapons in a way not seen since the height of the Cold War.
04:49American and British spy subs are in the area with orders to learn about this unusual show of force.
05:08The Kursk's role in the war game is to hunt down the missile cruiser Peter the Great.
05:19She fires an unarmed missile, a supersonic weapon codenamed shipwreck.
05:34The Kursk was built to attack the United States Navy.
05:38The Oscar-class submarines were designed to sink U.S. carriers.
05:44They were designed to trail U.S. carrier battle groups in the event of a war to fire their missiles and kill the carrier before the carrier could kill some of their ships.
05:50One month before this mission, Captain Lieutenant Dmitry Kolesnikov brings his new bride Olga aboard to show her the Kursk.
06:06For Olga, the state-of-the-art sub is a compelling rival for her husband's affections.
06:11I was insanely jealous of that lady because I knew he loved her.
06:26At times, I couldn't even tell which of us he loved more, me or her.
06:32Dmitry Kolesnikov told me many times that he would come to no harm for as long as he served on the Kursk.
06:41That's why, when he left port, I wasn't worried.
06:45I knew that woman would protect him and take good care of him.
06:51She wouldn't let anything happen to him.
06:54August 12th, 2000. The Kursk is scheduled to fire a practiced torpedo.
07:10The fleet waits. The shot is never fired.
07:15At 11.29 a.m., the Kursk explodes and plunges over 300 feet down.
07:31The missile cruiser Peter the Great scours the area with sonar in a desperate race to rescue anyone who may have survived.
07:38Finally, after a day and a half, the Kursk is discovered.
07:45A buoy marks the location of the stricken submarine.
07:50If there are men alive on the Kursk, the near freezing temperature and limited oxygen offer only a few precious days' survival.
08:02Still, Russia declines all offers for help.
08:05August 20th. Eight days since the Kursk sank. Russia's rescue operation has failed.
08:24Divers from Norway are finally permitted to the disaster site.
08:27A diver hammers on the hull.
08:38There is no response.
08:44A robotic vehicle opens the rear escape hatch.
08:50Only a final burst of air.
08:53118 men are dead.
09:03Those who survived the explosion must have died a horrible, slow death.
09:09It's like Dante's Inferno. I mean, it's like going to hell.
09:12I mean, those poor guys are stuck in a sunken ship with limited air supply, waiting to die.
09:23The divers also discover that the submarine's bow is severely damaged.
09:27The mystery behind what sank the Kursk lies somewhere in this twisted, forward section of the submarine.
09:44Families of those lost on the Kursk seek answers.
09:47None more so than one mother, Nadezda Tielek.
09:52Nadezda Tielek.
09:53They were killed. They were killed. They were killed, they were killed.
09:57They were killed there.
09:58But there's nothing in our lives.
09:59Nothing in the world.
10:03And I called them...
10:05So then I screamed at them to tear off their own epaulets.
10:15Because I think such people don't deserve to be in the military.
10:18in the military, they had murdered our kids, oh, near and dear.
10:32When a nurse sedates Teelik, it is a public relations catastrophe.
10:36Please do not disturb yourself! We will not give you any food!
11:06Russian President Vladimir Putin steps in. He vows to raise the Kursk. His pledge sends
11:15a message of hope and strength. The operation will cost 130 million US dollars, but Russia
11:22believes it must be done.
11:25There are several reasons for this. The first, most important one, is that we need all the
11:31information on the disaster that we can get. The other reason, no less important, is to
11:36get this huge, hazardous object, a nuclear object, out of the area of the Barents Sea,
11:41which is characterized by heavy traffic. These are the two reasons that make the raising
11:46of the Kursk necessary.
11:51In May 2001, the Dutch company Mammut signs a contract to raise the Kursk by September.
11:58Mammut is a world leader in heavy lifting and transport.
12:02It is a very complicated job because of nuclear aspects. You are working on a depth of 180 meters.
12:13You have very, very special equipment to do the lifting. So it is, for our company, it
12:21is really a milestone to do this job.
12:27Mammut brings in the Rotterdam Company, Smith International, as a partner. Together, they
12:33will tackle the most complex ocean salvage operation in history.
12:41The salvagers devise a plan. An enormous barge, called the Giant Four, will be anchored over
12:53the Kursk. 26 cables will be lowered from the Giant and attached to the submarine. Each one
13:05will be fitted into a hole cut by divers into the sub's hull. The sub will be lifted from
13:14the bottom and secured under the barge. The Kursk will then be towed to a dry dock 110 miles
13:22away, near the Russian city of Murmansk.
13:34Theory pales against practice. If they succeed, the Kursk will be the heaviest vessel ever lifted
13:40from the ocean floor. No ship, to my knowledge, this large has ever been salvaged from about
13:49300 feet. Something displacing over 20,000 tons, I don't think we've ever undertaken anything
13:58of size size or complexity. The Kursk's two nuclear reactors are shut down. But the sub contains
14:08dozens of missiles and torpedoes. A weapons explosion could unleash a nuclear disaster.
14:13I don't say there is no risk. There is always a risk in this type of operations. But you make
14:20your assessments in such a way that you eliminate all the events and you limit your risks in that
14:27respect. But there is always a risk. The countdown begins. The salvagers have just
14:34four months before Arctic weather prevents them from raising the Kursk.
14:39July 2001. In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, an enormous barge undergoes its most unusual refit in over
14:5820 years of service. She is the Giant Four. At 24,000 tons and 450 feet long, the Giant's purpose
15:09is to transport heavy objects for the oil industry, even entire rigs. Certainly, she has never lifted a
15:20nuclear submarine from the ocean floor. The barge is custom-fitted for each job. For the Kursk, the Giant is
15:32outfitted with 26 lifting jacks. Each jack has been tested to 900 tons. A bundle of 54 cables extends from
15:45each jack, which will be lowered to the Kursk. During experiments in a Russian laboratory, the cables prove stronger
15:58stronger than the steel plugs that will marry them to the Kursk.
16:08To keep the barge stable over the sub, the lifting jacks have a hydraulic system much like a car's suspension
16:15to counteract wave action of up to eight feet. So what we have to do is to create a suspension system based on a gas
16:24cylinders that takes out the action of the waves, which then takes all the forces and the load from the waves. It does not affect the lifting units.
16:33The Giant undergoes another critical modification. A massive hole is cut into her hull in order
16:43to accommodate the Kursk's conning tower once the sub and the barge are married.
16:48The bottom of the barge is partly opened up. One part to have the plane, say the command tower of the
16:59submarine, to go into the structure of the barge. And underneath the barge, we have made kind of
17:04saddles, which are covered with wood. And those saddles, they have the same curve as the outer hull
17:11of the submarine.
17:13Modifications on the Giant continue 24 hours a day to meet the September deadline.
17:24On July 16, in the Barents Sea, another ship begins the first phase of the operation over the wreck of the Kursk.
17:33She is the Mayo. 270 feet long, the Mayo is the dive support vessel for the men with the most perilous job
17:41in the entire Kursk operation. A rotating crew of 12 divers and 70 support staff are aboard.
17:54The Mayo contains a saturation diving system. In order to give divers maximum time under water, they live for four weeks in a tiny steel cylinder, their bodies pressurized to the depth of the Kursk.
18:08They are unable to leave the chamber during their month-long job. It could kill them if they did.
18:15The living chamber connects with a diving bell so that the divers can transfer from one to another without depressurizing.
18:26So when this bell is mated onto here, you've got a sequence of doors that have to be opened and closed from the diving quarters, actually into the diving bell, and then this has to be parted from the living system and then tracked out over to the moon pool and dropped down to their working depth to carry out their work. So basically this is a taxi to their job.
18:33So basically this is a taxi to their job.
18:40This is a taxi to their job.
18:47This is a taxi.
18:48This is a taxi.
18:49This is a taxi.
18:54This is a taxi to their job.
18:55This is a taxi to their job.
19:01This is a taxi to their job.
19:08A tether connects the divers to the bell, delivering them air, light and hot water to
19:30heat their suits as the sea temperature is barely above freezing.
19:38Two divers work at all times, while another monitors them from the bell.
19:47Three hundred feet down, their first task is to clear the hull of debris and silt.
19:53It's dangerous and gruesome work.
19:57The Kursk is a tomb for the remains of over a hundred men.
20:04She also contains unexploded weapons and two nuclear reactors.
20:09The divers are on constant alert for radiation leaks.
20:17Their most critical job is to cut 26 holes in the Kursk's hull to attach the lifting cables.
20:26To do this, the divers use an abrasive water jet system.
20:33Shooting from a nozzle at up to 22,000 pounds per square inch, the water and grit combination
20:40can cut through the Kursk's steel hull like a laser.
20:52For the divers' safety, the mayo must remain exactly in place over the Kursk.
20:58What the ship does is we've got three bow thrusters forward and we've got two azimuth thrusters aft.
21:07And what he's doing is instructing the computer to actually move.
21:12So it's got a GPS position where it knows where it is and it's now going to move 10 meters in
21:16the direction to that new position and it will then sit on that position and you can move the
21:21ship any which way or whatever you want.
21:25The divers rotate around the clock in six-hour shifts.
21:30After each descent, they return to their cramped, compressed home.
21:39Cutting the hull turns out to be a much more difficult operation than expected.
21:46The Kursk is covered by six inches of rubber, a noise reducer.
21:51The precise high-pressure jet merely mangles this rubber layer.
21:58After two weeks' work, just two of 26 holes are cut.
22:06There is no time for this setback.
22:10As the divers labor on the hull of the Kursk, they report that the bow is severely damaged.
22:18Few things could cause such destruction.
22:25Many in the Russian Navy believe that an American spy submarine collided with the Kursk.
22:32I think that as the submarine Kursk was working on its mission in the northern fleets testing areas, it was kept under surveillance by foreign soldiers.
22:39I am not pointing any fingers here.
23:04It isn't relevant whether these were US or British or some other submarines.
23:13There have been dozens of submarine collisions, most in Russia's Barents Sea.
23:19Captain Sergei Bolgakov experienced one of the most recent.
23:26In March 1993, I was on active duty.
23:31On March 20th, the collision occurred.
23:34As we found out later, we collided with the US submarine, Grayling.
23:38It happened in the Barents Sea.
23:50The US Navy has been operating up there for quite a while.
23:53Keeping an eye on the Soviet Navy, really to see how they operate and what their capabilities were.
23:57So in the event of a war, we'd be able to handle them a lot more easily.
24:01Three NATO submarines were in the area spying on the Russian naval operation when the Kursk sank.
24:08But the United States denies that one of its submarines collided with the Kursk.
24:13I don't think the American submarine would have, one, made it back.
24:17Two, if it made it back, would have probably done so on the surface.
24:21And three, with 130 people on the American attack submarine, we'd know by now.
24:27The Russian Navy continues to search for clues.
24:34A telltale scrape, maybe some parts from a NATO sub.
24:38So far, they find no evidence.
24:44The Navy now guards the Kursk site from any other unwelcome intruders.
24:49The missile cruiser, Peter the Great, keeps constant vigil, warding off NATO ships and submarines.
24:56Spy ships circle the area.
25:00This one, Norwegian, inquisitive about the unique salvage operation.
25:05Out of sight below the sea, divers continue their morbid work on a steel tomb.
25:12Resting place for the remains of more than a hundred men.
25:17And on the first anniversary of the sub's loss, at a service in St. Petersburg, the mourning has still only just begun.
25:30Twelve corpses were removed by divers from the submarine in October, 2000.
25:44One of them was Dmitry Kolesnikov.
25:47On his body, a note wrapped in plastic.
25:52Final words to his wife of four months, Olga.
25:56Olichka, I love you.
26:00I love you.
26:02Don't be too upset.
26:04I can't see my own writing in the dark, but I'll try writing nevertheless.
26:09It looks like we don't have much chance.
26:12Ten or twenty percent at best.
26:15Let's hope someone will read this.
26:18Here is the list of names of all compartment personnel who are present in compartment 9 and are going to try to break out.
26:27Love to everyone.
26:29Do not despair.
26:30Kolesnikov.
26:36Kolesnikov's note says he was trapped in the very rear of the submarine with 22 other men.
26:45He writes two hours after the explosion at 1.15pm and again at 3.45.
26:52Proof that he and several others spent their final hours in icy darkness, waiting for a rescue that would never come.
27:05I don't know where Dima found the strength to write those amazing words.
27:12One year to the days since the curse sank, the people of St. Petersburg pay tribute to the loss of the crew.
27:27Many must have died instantly, but others like Dmitry Kolesnikov lived a few harrowing hours longer, ultimately running out of oxygen and time.
27:47For the families, raising the curse has a personal meaning.
27:52It will bring their dead home.
27:54When the curse sank in August 2000, the sound was detected by scientists in nearby Norway.
28:09They recorded two noises just over two minutes apart.
28:14The first, small.
28:16The next, 3.5 on the Richter scale.
28:23Comparable to a small earthquake.
28:28But one thing was unusual.
28:31The explosions were eerily similar.
28:33We compared them and they were very, very close in terms of the seismic signal.
28:40Talking about the character of the event now.
28:43Of course, the size was vastly different.
28:46The first one was very small and was barely detected, even at the closest station.
28:52The acoustic evidence provides clues to what happened when the Kursk sank.
28:57August 12th, 2000.
29:07As part of a war game, Kursk is ordered to fire a practice torpedo.
29:18At 8.51 a.m., the Kursk's captain radios for confirmation.
29:23The missile cruiser, Peter the Great, moves 30 miles off and waits.
29:38Two and a half hours later, a small explosion from below.
29:42The captain does not surface the sub.
29:46The Kursk must be severely flooding.
29:49One hundred thirty-four seconds later.
29:51A devastating blast.
29:52The sound indicates that the first explosion was a single tornado.
29:57The explosion was severely flooding.
29:59One hundred thirty-four seconds later.
30:02A devastating blast.
30:07The sound indicates that the first explosion was a single tornado.
30:11The sound indicates that the first explosion was a single tornado.
30:15the sound indicates that the first explosion was a single torpedo the
30:24torpedo contains a tank of fuel propellant on typical Russian torpedoes
30:30that fuel is hydrogen peroxide heated hydrogen peroxide in contact with
30:36certain metal surfaces is known to explode if a fire had started the
30:44hydrogen peroxide heated and if the crew failed to reject it overboard an
30:49explosion was inevitable that fire then a couple of minutes later spread to one
30:57or two other torpedoes line alongside this one and that then detonated the
31:04warheads which just tore open the bow of the submarine the second explosion would
31:09have killed everyone in the forward half of the submarine in less than a
31:15minute but what triggered the first explosion remains an unsolved mystery
31:22august 14th 2001
31:33300 feet below the vessel mayo divers labor against the kursk's tough outer hull
31:42after four weeks only 11 of 26 holes have been cut in the submarine they had
31:54expected to be finished this first phase by now and winter weather is just one
32:00month away
32:02despite the setback phase two is set in motion 200 miles west in kirkness
32:13Norway a barge carrying a revolutionary cutting saw arrives from Holland
32:19the salvagers fear pieces of the damaged bow may fall off during the lift they have decided to remove 60 feet
32:31from the front of the submarine but many believe the Russians have their own
32:36motives for this surgery it will leave clues to what sank the sub at the bottom of
32:42the Barents Sea
32:45I think the only hard evidence if it exists at all is in the forward torpedo room
32:54and again that's the section they're leaving on the ocean floor but they've
32:59lost a chance to have technicians forensic scientists if you will go over that forward
33:06torpedo room once it was on the surface the saw is a cable encrusted in sharp steel
33:14cutting bushings it has been tested on an old hulk similar in strength to the hull of the curse
33:21but until the divers complete cutting the holes the saw barge will wait in Norway a delay the
33:31operation cannot afford a hundred and ten miles south of the site the largest dry dock in Russia
33:42awaits the curse but the dry dock is too shallow to accommodate the barge giant with the submarine harness beneath
33:55the solution lies in Severodavinsk in the Russian north at the Sevmash shipyard
34:04Sevmash has the job of building pontoons for the final critical part of the lift
34:10ironically this shipyard also built the kursk 10 years earlier
34:17the huge submersible pontoons will lift the giant fully out of the water and escort the barge subcombination
34:27into the dry dock the construction of the 300 foot long pontoons in just three months is the fastest large-scale
34:37operation in the history of shipbuilding
34:40august 21st 2001 salvagers get their first taste of winter all operations cease september will be much worse
34:55after three days of ferocious seas work resumes on the wreck of the kursk but the salvagers now officially
35:09admit the technical problems have delayed the lift by a week now the divers proceed at a furious pace over the next two
35:21days ten holes are cut finally on august 28th the last of 26 holes is finished
35:30the first phase is complete now the salvage ships mobilize in a synchronized plan the saw barge leaves Norway
35:411600 miles away in Amsterdam the giant gets underway toward at just five miles an hour the giant will reach the kursk in two weeks
35:55after two months of successes and delays the greatest challenges are still ahead
36:02August 30th 2001 the cutting saw designed to sever 60 feet off the mangled bow of the kursk arrives at the site
36:16the humble rusting barge is flagship of this dangerous phase of the operation
36:26the saw must be placed exactly to avoid explosive impact with the subs forward missiles or with torpedoes in the devastated bow
36:38two forty foot high anchors designed to burrow their way into the seabed will keep tension on the saw
36:48they are lowered and then positioned on either side of the kursk's bow an operation that takes four precious days
36:57the saw chain with its steel bushings stretches over the top of the kursk's hull
37:08on September 4th the cutting begins diving operations halt fearing lethal contact
37:18the saw the chain slices through the curse at an amazing speed the operation was expected to take days 25% of the
37:30cutting is complete after just two hours
37:33then a setback the saw breaks loose from the anchors
37:40working around the clock it takes a full two days to reattach the saw
37:50after another day's work good progress only 20% of the kursk's hull remains to be cut
38:02but the saw now digs into the seabed and breaks again and again the delay costs another three days
38:16now the giant completes her 1600 mile voyage she arrives in nearby kirkness norway and is instructed to wait there
38:26if the bow is not removed the giant will never get her chance to lift the kursk
38:33the giant will never get her chance to lift the kursk
38:40on September 11th the terrorist event that shakes the united states reaches the distant barren sea
38:56Russia joins the world in mourning
39:03but the operation does not pause divers continue to grapple with the saw
39:11on September 14th the final few inches of the kursk steel hull are severed
39:18now another frenetic week passes as teams of divers cleared debris from the holes in the kursk's hull
39:26to install the lifting cables
39:47on September 26th the giant arrives from Norway and anchors in position over the kursk
39:54the kursk
40:01but the giant may be too late the deadline to lift the kursk has passed
40:07from now on the weather will be the salvagers worst enemy
40:12from mid-September on you're not going to be able to pull off a salvage operation
40:17from mid-September probably to March because of heavy weather
40:22just then the worst storm of the season lashes the barren sea
40:34the giant's captain Pete Sink calls his shore team to consider the options
40:39anchored he runs the risk of facing the storm broadside putting the barge in jeopardy
40:46but to leave for shelter would delay the lift even further
40:51okay Leo
40:54all this again so
40:58Sink and his team decide to ride it out
41:00Sink and his team decide to ride it out
41:05for two days the giant is battered by wind and sea
41:13the giant is battered by wind and sea
41:20the weather breaks at last
41:26but the lift operation needs at least four days of calm seas to succeed
41:31in nearby Mermansk project chief Franz van Sumeren makes a grim statement
41:38of course
41:40it is so that the forecast for tomorrow is not good
41:46because there is a lot of swell with the northeast wind
41:50and probably we cannot do a lot tomorrow
41:53Thursday, Friday is by the weather not possible anymore
42:01but they have come too far to give up now
42:04the next stage of the operation proceeds
42:07four cables from each lifting jack guide heavy steel plugs called grippers down to the submarine
42:16the grippers secure each of the 26 lifting bundles to the holes in the submarine
42:22they expand and lock in position
42:25now the giant is married to the Kursk
42:35after four months
42:38all of the intricate pieces of the operation are finally in place
42:42the weather must hold
42:46the lifting jacks can only compensate for waves of up to eight feet
42:51if the waves get any higher
42:54the sub will be disconnected
42:56and the lift called off
42:58maybe forever
43:00forever
43:073.30 am
43:10October 8th
43:122001
43:13in calm seas and biting arctic air
43:17the time has come at last to attempt
43:20to raise the Kursk
43:22Divers are cleared from the site
43:26if even a single cable breaks
43:29the recoil could kill
43:31ok, welcome
43:33we are starting with lifting
43:35we put on the back side
43:37700 tons
43:39ok
43:40Jan van Sumeren is in charge on the joint
43:47ok, you are not so ok to start tensioning up on the off section
43:51the Kursk is embedded in the ocean floor
43:54making an exact lifting calculation impossible
43:57the system can handle 18,000 tons lifting power
44:04the salvagers begin with 4,000 tons
44:07about half way divided between bow and stern
44:10ok
44:11ok
44:12ok
44:13ok
44:14ok
44:15ok
44:16ok
44:17ok
44:18ok
44:19ok
44:20ok
44:21ok
44:22ok
44:23ok
44:24ok
44:25ok
44:39ok
44:40computers show the weight supported by each jack
44:44and indicate how each hydraulic compensator counteracts the motion of the sea
44:49Power is increased to 7,000 tons.
45:04Miraculously, suction from the seabed offers no resistance.
45:13At 9,600 tons, the Kursk rises off the ocean floor.
45:29The Kursk is the heaviest object ever lifted from the bottom of the sea.
45:39At 5.30 p.m., she fits snugly under the giant.
45:46It is a technological victory that has never been equaled in the history of ocean salvage.
45:56Over a year since her catastrophic loss, the Kursk and her entombed crew are going home.
46:03It takes two days for the giant and her tragic cargo to reach the dry dock, 110 miles south near Murmansk.
46:10Another technical challenge awaits.
46:17The Navy dry dock is too shallow, so pontoons must lift the giant and the Kursk.
46:25The Russian-built pontoons are designed to lock onto the giant's hull, but problems plague this seemingly simple plan.
46:44The operation takes 12 days, but in the sheltered bay, Arctic storms no longer pose any threat.
46:56It is mid-October, a full month later than scheduled.
47:02Finally, the pontoons lock onto the giant.
47:06Water is pumped from the pontoons, lifting the barge fully out of the water.
47:11The Kursk emerges beneath the giant.
47:16Russian Navy experts will spend months combing the sub for clues to what sank her.
47:32They find parts of the front of the sub embedded deep in her middle, terrifying proof of a massive torpedo explosion.
47:43Experts estimate that a blast equivalent of five tons of TNT ripped through the sub's steel hull.
47:51But they can find no proof if the explosion was caused by a collision or by human error inside the Kursk.
48:03On October 21st, 2001, the Russian Navy eases the barge cradling their shattered submarine into the dry dock.
48:12Underneath the giant, the lifting cables are lowered and the grippers retracted.
48:41Two days later, the salvage ship and submarine finally part.
48:46The Kursk's conning tower appears in the Arctic air.
48:50The submarine's fate is to be scrapped at a cost of 10 million US dollars.
49:00A United States Congress nuclear safety fund will pay for her destruction.
49:16Deep inside the Kursk, there is one final gruesome task.
49:21The search for human remains.
49:31Of 118 men lost, 82 bodies are recovered.
49:36Most can be identified. Evidence that they may not all have been killed in the blast.
49:42Several may have died hours later, trapped in darkness, knee-deep in icy water, when oxygen finally ran out.
49:51The image haunts Olga Kolesnikov.
50:06The final terrible moments of her husband Dmitri, stranded in the submarine.
50:12I'm still waiting for him to come back. I'm waiting for him all the time.
50:27With my mind, I understand that I must accept this tragedy as an accomplished fact.
50:33But my heart refuses to believe it.
50:40At the bottom of the Barents Sea, divers place a memorial where the curse was lost.
50:46A permanent tribute to the catastrophe and to the triumph of those who raised her from the unforgiving sea.
50:57As we're looking forward to the miracle of the pattern,
50:58I've been struggling with the battle against Teenage Mutant Gallery,
51:01I've been trying for a moment in a moment in a row.
51:02There are people who are not allowed to believe it.
51:03I think this is a great place for you.
51:06Why are I not allowed to believe it?
51:07With my mind, I've been struggling with the value of I can see.
51:09I think this is an exciting thing to love.
51:11I do the best thing to watch it.
51:14I'm struggling with the cla-co-coaster in your own country.
51:19But I'm struggling with this.
51:20I'm struggling with this.
51:22I'm struggling with faith.
51:23I'm struggling with this.
51:24I'm struggling with this.
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