The search for more bodies from the Russian submarine Kursk entered its second week on Saturday dogged by bad weather and haunted by the renewed anguish of relatives.
Divers resumed the terrible task of attempting to bring more bodies to the surface after a note found on one dead sailor revealed that 23 people had survived the initial blast, only to suffer a lingering death in the darkness.
Three Norwegian divers were trying to gain access to the ninth compartment, where sailors are thought to have taken refuge after the submarine blew apart and sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea.
"The weather has improved slightly, for a few hours according to reports, and the decision has been taken to restart operations," said a spokesman for the Russian Northern Fleet.
The divers had been idle since Thursday evening, when high winds and heavy seas forced them to stop work on the submarine that went down on August 12, claiming the lives of all 118 on board.
The news that up to 23 sailors who survived two blasts that sank the Kursk may have clung to life for more than 24 hours before drowning or suffocating piled on the horror for relatives of the sailors.
A crumpled, sodden note written in the pitch black by Lieutenant-Captain Dmitiri Kolesnikov -- whose body was the first to be recovered -- showed that that the men had fled to the rear ninth section of the doomed craft after an explosion ripped through its bow.
Mayhem erupted as it sank, with fire sweeping through the doomed craft and sailors pelted with falling debris from all sides, the Russian navy said after examining four other bodies found by divers probing the wreck.
After a vain attempt for more than an hour to regain control of their wrecked craft, the sailors then fled to the rear of the vessel, Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, commander of the Northern Fleet said on Friday.
"As a submariner, I estimate that that the crew in the ninth compartment died not later than August 13. But most probably they died on the 12th," which was the day of the accident.
"They probably drowned or were asphyxiated," Popov told reporters.
An autopsy of the bodies recovered from the Kursk would establish the exact time of death, the admiral added.
Popov's statement marked the first official admission that rescuers may have had a window of opportunity to save some lives onboard the stricken vessel.
After the Russian navy's own attempts to reach the submarine failed, a massive international rescue effort was mounted days later.
The Russian government rejected a storm of criticism that it should have immediately accepted offers of help by saying that all rescue efforts were destined to end in failure because there were no survivors.
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed on Thursday to honour a pledge to pursue operations to recover victims of the Kursk submarine disaster, despite the difficulties, ITAR-TASS reported.
"Work on the Kursk will continue. Whatever the difficulties, we will continue and fulfill the promises made to the families of the dead sailors," Putin said at the start of a security council meeting.
Meanwhile weather forecasts indicated that heavy winds, snow and five-meter (15-foot) waves would continue to buffet the Barents Sea for several days, making rescue operations increasingly hazardous -- SEVEROMORSK (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
