Vehicle cutting cable tangling Russian sub
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-07 08:47

Rescue crews lowered a British remote-controlled underwater vehicle to a Russian mini-submarine trapped deep under the Pacific Ocean Sunday, hoping to free the vessel and its seven trapped crewmen before their air supply ran out, the Associated Press reported.

A video grab shows a Russian vessel involved in rescue work in the Pacific Ocean August 6, 2005. [Reuters]

British crews, who arrived some hours earlier at the remote Kamchatka Peninsula, were working with Russian naval authorities to maneuver the Super Scorpio unmanned robotic vehicle and untangle the AS-28, which was caught up by a military listening antenna 625 feet below the surface three days ago.

Captain Igor Dygalo told the Associated Press that workers lowered the Super Scorpio at around 11:30 a.m. local time at the site in Beryozovaya Bay about 10 miles off the east coast of the peninsula, north of Japan.

The Super Scorpio then began cutting cables that had tangled the sub, Russian news agencies reported.

Earlier, Russian rescuers looped cables under the antenna, hoping to bring both it and the 44-foot-long sub closer to the surface where divers could reach the crew.

Russian authorities hope British and American unmanned submersibles, sent after a Russian plea for help, can cut the submarine loose. They are trying desperately to avoid losing a sub crew as they did with the Kursk nuclear submarine, which sank almost exactly five years ago, killing all 118 aboard.

A U.S. crew with two other Super Scorpio vehicles, meanwhile, was also making its way to the site after landing later on the rain-soaked peninsula.

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