High Seas Disaster

By Daniel Benjamin

Far below the surface of the chilly Norwegian Sea, perhaps as deep as 2,000 ft., the submarine was running quietly and swiftly. With its tough titanium hull and liquid-metal-cooled nuclear reactors, the 361-ft. Mike-class vessel was one of the deepest-diving and fastest-running attack subs in Moscow's fleet. Then, late one morning last week, a submariner's worst nightmare became reality: fire broke out. The sub managed to reach the surface about 320 miles off the northern coast of Norway. As it wallowed, many of the 95 crew members rushed to life rafts and paddled away. A small flotilla of Soviet vessels sped to pick up survivors and also tried to tow the sub to safety. But rough seas and winds gusting to 46 m.p.h. soon dashed the effort. About six hours after the emergency began, the vessel sank in water more than 4,500 ft. deep, where even its tough hull would crumple like foil. At least 50 crewmen may have died.

Throughout the region, fears stirred at the prospect of uncontrolled radioactivity beneath the sea. Along with its reactors, the Mike-class sub was equipped to carry nuclear-armed cruise missiles. Soviet military spokesmen refused to say whether any such weapons were aboard, but Moscow acted quickly to try to dispel international concerns. Only hours after returning home from London, Mikhail Gorbachev sent reassuring messages to President Bush, British Prime Minister Thatcher and Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. The power plant on the stricken sub had been shut down before the vessel sank, declared Gorbachev, who added, "The possibility of a nuclear explosion and radioactive pollution of the environment is excluded."

U.S. naval experts said it was too early to know if much radiation would escape, though several nuclear subs have sunk without serious leakage. Norwegian ships were instructed by Oslo to take water samples in the accident area to gauge possible atomic pollution.

The sinking was a sharp blow to the Soviet navy. The prototype sub represented state-of-the-art Soviet design, impressive enough to prompt concern in Washington that U.S. superiority in undersea warfare might be imperiled. The Mike-class vessel was put in service in 1984 and was the only one of its class afloat. Experts believe it was used to test new design and propulsion features. The sinking marked at least the fifth such Soviet loss in 30 years. In the most recent major disaster, a Yankee-class Soviet sub burned and sank in the Atlantic in October 1986. Three sailors died in the incident, which occurred 1,000 miles off the coast of North Carolina.

With reporting by Julian Isherwood/Copenhagen and Bruce van Voorst/Washington