Accident on submarine in the Arctic
Last week there was a serious accident on board a submarine doing research for DAMOCLES.
There was an explosion in which two sailors were killed. The submarine and its crew were in the Beaufort Sea carrying out an ice thickness survey under the Alaskan ice camp. The crew managed to surface in a polynya. The science programme was ended and the boat is returning to the UK.
Before the accident the submarine succeeded in obtaining multibeam sonar data along a line from Fram Strait to the Beaufort Sea and also did a grid survey of the Damocles fuel cache site at 85N 65W, which will later be overflown by EM and swath laser during Damocles field programme.
Sincere condolences for the two sailors and their families from Jean Claude Gascard, Coordinator of the Damocles European Integrated Project and on behalf of the Damocles consortium.
