Vice Admiral Borisov: “The Kursk submarine was ruined by the negligence of people and a hydrogen explosion”

From 1992 to 1994, he was the chairman of the Committee for Special Purpose Underwater Works under the Government of the Russian Federation; was engaged in the conservation of the sunken nuclear-powered ship "Komsomolets", the liquidation of burials of Nazi chemical weapons. Borisov shared his opinion on the sinking of the Kursk submarine .

“At that time, the fourth day after the death of the boat, they were generally silent about the explosions, no one spoke about it.

Nothing was known. It was only known that they were going to serve them hot food. Everything is in order, the connection is established. You know: they lied then absolutely godlessly.

And so they asked me what, from my point of view, could happen on the boat.

And I said that at the moment, that is, at the time of the year 2000, the death of 39 submarines from all fleets was officially established as a result of an explosion of hydrogen that is released from the storage battery.

There were powerful batteries, old ones. Such batteries always emit some amount of hydrogen.

But this problem is being solved. There is a hydrogen afterburning system that usually works. When the boat is on the surface, the battery is vented to the atmosphere.

The first thing that is forced to study newcomers to the crew is the handling of batteries.

This is PUAP - the rules for caring for a battery, this is such a desktop book for everyone.

Even, I beg your pardon, but such a joke went among the sailors: “Forget about the women - learn PUAP!”.

That is, until an officer or midshipman who had newly arrived on the boat learned this instruction, he was not even allowed ashore.

I believe that here, unfortunately, there was the negligence of the personnel, who did not check the hydrogen content in the compartment in a timely manner, and this led to a hydrogen explosion. And then - two options for the development of events.

This record, where I told all this, can probably still be found if desired, if it has not been destroyed.

The fourth day after the death of the Kursk submarine. I said then: most likely, an explosion of hydrogen, which was released from the batteries. Unfortunately, the human factor.

Then there are two options: either, the first option, followed by the detonation of ammunition, which were on the racks of the torpedo; the second option is a fire, and after two or three minutes a second catastrophic explosion. I was the first to say about these two explosions: that there could have been a double explosion, or a fire, and then an explosion. As a matter of fact, it was. The first bang, after which the boat still continued to go.

Now, they say that it allegedly began to descend, and then, when it hit the ground, a second explosion allegedly occurred. This is completely absurd, for one simple reason: as it moved, the boat did not go down vertically, but descended along a gentle trajectory after the explosions, when it began to fill with water.

The wreckage was scattered along the entire route along which she dived.

After the first explosion, it passed for some more time, precisely because the strong body was not damaged.

And after the second explosion. When the strong hull had already exploded, some debris was scattered, water gushed, the explosion was so strong that almost everything up to the reactor compartment was demolished and destroyed.

Why do I think that until the second explosion the boat continued to go, at periscope depth, most likely, the main command post, the central post of the submarine, was trying to figure out what happened in the first compartment. And they did not surface, did not turn on the torpedo spray system, did nothing that could save the submarine.

This is my personal opinion, I am ready to defend it anywhere.

If the emergency fire extinguishing systems had been turned on, they would have worked normally, or if they had been turned on forcibly, from the central post, a second explosion could have been avoided."

The entire episode featuring Tengiz Borisov can be viewed here .