55 yrs ago today—during a massive Soviet naval exercise in the Bay of Biscay involving 209 ships and submarines and hundreds of aircraft—the nuclear-powered attack submarine K-8 sank in 14,500 feet of water ~260 nautical miles northwest of Spain with 30 sailors, 2 reactors, and 4 nuclear torpedoes. - ThreadSky

atomicanalyst.bsky.social • 9 days ago

55 yrs ago today—during a massive Soviet naval exercise in the Bay of Biscay involving 209 ships and submarines and hundreds of aircraft—the nuclear-powered attack submarine K-8 sank in 14,500 feet of water ~260 nautical miles northwest of Spain with 30 sailors, 2 reactors, and 4 nuclear torpedoes.

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atomicanalyst.bsky.social•9 days ago

Previously, late on the night of April 8, at a depth of about 400 feet, the K-8 suffered two simultaneous electrical short circuits, causing fires in two compartments and shutting down both reactors. Eight sailors died from the fires or when the compartments they were in flooded and were sealed off.

atomicanalyst.bsky.social•9 days ago

The K-8 surfaced in rough seas. Dense smoke and high carbon monoxide levels led Captain Vsevolod Bessonov to order everyone to abandon ship. But once a Soviet ship arrived to tow it, he and 51 other crew—half the original complement—reboarded to try and save the submarine.

atomicanalyst.bsky.social•9 days ago

After more than three days of arduous damage control, during which the fires continued to burn and the flooding increased, the K-8 sank to the bottom of the ocean. In addition to the 30 sailors who drowned or succumbed to carbon monoxide, 22 died of exposure in the water while awaiting rescue.

atomicanalyst.bsky.social•9 days ago

Following the sinking of the K-8 in waters believed to be too deep to permit retrieval of the wreckage, Soviet survey vessels reportedly guarded the area nearly continuously for six months, with periodic patrols occurring until 1979 and only occasional patrols thereafter.

atomicanalyst.bsky.social•9 days ago

The K-8 was the first Soviet nuclear-powered submarine to be lost at sea. But this was not its first accident. On October 13, 1960, less than three months after K-8 was commissioned, one of its reactors began to lose coolant when a steam generator tube ruptured during an exercise in the Barents Sea.

atomicanalyst.bsky.social•9 days ago

The crew prevented a meltdown by improvising a system to restore coolant to the reactor, but large quantities of highly-radioactive gases nevertheless escaped during the accident, contaminating the entire submarine at levels higher than what could be measured by any of the instruments on board.

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