Soviet submarine K-219

1986

Bermuda, the missile tube, Preminin's reactor Location: Atlantic Ocean, ~680 nmi NE of Bermuda · Coordinates: 31.50°N 54.70°W · Casualties: 4 · Survivors: 115 · Depth: 5,500 m · Cause: missile propellant leak · fire — Developed a seawater leak into missile tube six through a faulty seal on 3 October 1986. Nitric acid oxidizer reacted with the seawater and leaked hydrazine fuel, producing an explosion that killed three and ruptured the silo. Fire and reactor scram followed; she was taken in tow and sank four days later. · Fate: abyssal · nuclear reactors on seabed · Type: submarine · ballistic missile · Yankee I · Tonnage: 9,300 tons · Crew: 119 · Flag: Soviet Union · Launched: 1971 Soviet Yankee I-class ballistic missile submarine, on patrol northeast of Bermuda. Developed a seawater leak into a missile tube on 3 October 1986; the nitric acid oxidizer and hydrazine fuel reacted and exploded, rupturing the silo and starting a fire. The crew scrammed the reactors manually; twenty-year-old Seaman Sergei Preminin entered the compartment to shut the second reactor down and did not come out alive. She was taken in tow and sank four days later, taking two nuclear reactors and sixteen R-27U missiles with her. The Vessel The Soviet Navy submarine K-219 was a Yankee I-class ballistic missile submarine of the Northern Fleet, commissioned at the Sevmash yard at Severodvinsk on 31 December 1971. She was 129 metres long, 9,300 tons submerged displacement, and carried sixteen R-27U submarine-launched ballistic missiles in silos behind her sail. Each R-27U missile carried three 500-kiloton nuclear warheads on a multiple independently-targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) system; the full missile load represented a strategic nuclear weapons capacity of 48 warheads with a combined yield of 24 megatons. The Yankee I class was the first Soviet SSBN class capable of sustained under-ice operations and extended Atlantic patrols against American coastal targets. Thirty-four Yankee-class submarines were built at Severodvinsk and Komsomolsk between 1967 and 1974; K-219 was the 27th of the class. Her service from 1971 through 1986 included approximately twelve operational patrols in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, with typical patrol duration of 60-70 days. Her commanding officer in October 1986 was Captain Second Rank Igor Britanov, 46, a career Soviet Navy submarine officer. The Disaster Captain Britanov surfaced K-219 immediately to conduct emergency damage control. The fires in the missile silos were contained by the submarine's damage-control teams over a period of approximately six hours. Four crewmen died in the initial silo explosion or in the subsequent fire: Warrant Officer Igor Kharchenko, Seaman Nikolai Smaglyuk, and two others whose remains were not formally identified. The fires in the missile silos, while contained, had produced a more serious secondary problem: heat damage to K-219's two nuclear reactor compartments, which had produced an automatic emergency reactor scram (emergency shutdown). The automatic scram system had then failed to complete the full shutdown sequence; one of the two reactors remained in a semi-uncontrolled state with residual heat buildup that risked a catastrophic reactor core meltdown. Seaman Sergei Preminin, 20 years old, entered the reactor compartment manually to complete the shutdown procedure that the automatic system had failed to finish. The reactor compartment was filled with superheated steam and had a radiation dose rate at levels that would be fatal within minutes. Preminin closed the reactor's four control rod hatches manually over a period of approximately 20 minutes. He was able to complete the shutdown procedure but was unable to return alive from the reactor compartment; he died of acute radiation syndrome and heat exposure before he could be evacuated. The disabled K-219, with her missiles silenced and