Salvage team arrives at site of stricken Kursk
An international team which hopes to raise the Russian nuclear submarine the Kursk today arrived at the wreck site in the Barents Sea.
The diving support vessel Mayo reached the north east coast of Norway this afternoon.
The vessel, which has British, Russian, Norwegian and Dutch divers and support staff on board, is operated by Aberdeen-based diving company DSND Subsea.
A spokesman for the Scottish firm said an 80-strong crew will spend the next few days getting equipment ready.
The team will then carry out a full investigation before starting cutting operations on the hull of the Kursk.
The diving vessel left Aberdeen Harbour a week ago following intensive training and equipment preparations.
Dutch contractors Mammoet Transport and Smit International are leading the salvage attempt, with Mammoet carrying out the lifting operation and Smit in charge of the underwater work.
The team will first prepare the wreck for the lifting operation, planned for mid-September, by clearing the submarine of soil and cutting holes into the vessel to allow lifting equipment to be attached.
The team then hopes to raise the vessel using a pontoon with 20 anchored lifting units, before it is transported to Murmansk and floated into a dry dock.
The Russian navy is expected to supervise the lifting of the Kursk, which was sunk by a series of explosions during a naval exercise last August, killing all 118 crewmen on board.
British divers were involved in the first mission to find survivors when they sailed on the Normand Pioneer supply ship from the Norwegian port of Trondheim five days later.
But the rescue attempts were abandoned less than a fortnight after the sinking when the submarine was found to be entirely flooded.
Investigators hope the rescue operation will not only result in the bodies of the victims being recovered but will help explain exactly what happened to the nuclear submarine.
