ITAR-TASS, October 22, 2001
The Kursk submarine has been separated from 26 steel ropes, which connected it to the Giant-4 barge. The staff of the Northern Fleet said that specialists of the Rubin design bureau and the company Mammoet have met at the Roslyakovo plant in order to decide when the barge and pontoons will be tugged from the floating dock.
It is possible that this operation will be postponed because the wind speed will increase to 12 meters per second in the second half of the day. Captain Igor Dygalo, Aide to the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, said, “All participants in the operation act in accordance with security requirements”.
The Information Department of the General Prosecutor’s Office said that the evacuation of the bodies would start from the ninth compartment of the submarine because the major part of seamen gathered there. Judging from the note written by Captain Kolesnikov, there were 23 seamen in the ninth compartment. The General Prosecutor’s Office said that 37 military prosecutors would examine the submarine. They will check readings of the all devices, the location of the bodies, and examine documents. Specialists of the prosecutor’s office have conducted several exercises on a model of the Kursk submarine.
