55 Chinese Sailors Feared Dead in Nuclear Submarine Mishap

[Uomo Senza Nome]

EXCLUSIVE: 55 Chinese sailors are feared dead after nuclear submarine 'gets caught in a trap intended to snare British and US vessels in the Yellow Sea' | Daily Mail Online

China has denied that the incident took place.  If true it would be China's first loss of a nuclear submarine.

[Raptor]

An underwater trap big enough to trap a nuclearsub?!

The loss of an SSN is easy to belive. An underwater trap though... well it sounds like material for a fiction novel.

Still what the hell do I know weirder things have happened.

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

An underwater trap big enough to trap a nuclearsub?!

The loss of an SSN is easy to belive. An underwater trap though... well it sounds like material for a fiction novel.

Still what the hell do I know weirder things have happened.

Didn't Tom Clancy write something like that years ago ?

[EBuff75]

From what I read (in this article and in others), the "trap" was cables / chains / nets attached to anchors which are meant to snag subs that try to sneak through the area.  In this case, the claim is that while they were dealing with the emergency of getting caught in it, something went fubar with their oxygen system and killed them before they could get everything straightened out.

I'm skeptical that it was a nuclear sub though, simply due to the relatively low number of casualties (it's claimed to be a Type 093 nuclear sub, which has a compliment of 100).  It would would seem to be more consistent with a coastal ("green water"), diesel-electric sub (e.g. Type 039 - compliment 60; Type 035 - compliment 57; Kilo class - compliment 52).  A diesel sub has to surface periodically to refresh their air and run their engines to recharge the batteries.  Getting trapped in a diesel sub quickly becomes life-threatening, whereas a nuclear sub could simply wait for assistance, since the reactor provides all the energy needed to produce oxygen.

https://www.newsweek.com/china-submarine-sinking-why-beijing-denials-mean-little-yellow-sea-pla-navy-1832687

"Given that it was reported that the submarine's crew was 55 sailors, it was likely that—if it occurred—it would have been a diesel-electric submarine designed to operate in shallower waters." A nuclear vessel, Tangredi added, would have had a greater survival time than an electric submarine, which relies on finite battery power.

Interestingly, even the PLA Navy's statement doesn't rule out that it could've been a non-nuclear sub:

On August 31, Chinese PLA colonel Wu Qian issued a denial on behalf of the Ministry of National Defense, the public affairs mouthpiece of the Communist Party's Central Military Commission, saying "reports claiming that a Chinese Type 093 nuclear-powered submarine had an accident in the Taiwan Straits are completely false."

So if it happened at all (which still hasn't been confirmed - even Taiwan hasn't been able to confirm that it actually happened, and they wouldn't have any reason to hush it up), I suspect that it was a smaller, coastal defense, diesel-electric sub that got snagged and couldn't fix the issue(s) in time to save themselves. 

[EBuff75]

An underwater trap big enough to trap a nuclearsub?!

The loss of an SSN is easy to belive. An underwater trap though... well it sounds like material for a fiction novel.

Still what the hell do I know weirder things have happened.

Didn't Tom Clancy write something like that years ago ?

Sort of.  In Red Storm Rising, the Russians set up a minefield at a choke point that forces any subs which want to transit the area to have to surface in order to avoid the mines. 

[majorhavoc]

An underwater trap big enough to trap a nuclearsub?!

My money's on some kind of underwater kaiju the Chinese awakened from its slumber.

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

An underwater trap big enough to trap a nuclearsub?!

My money's on some kind of underwater kaiju the Chinese awakened from its slumber.

Nessie ?

[Raptor]

In reading more stories it seems not all of the crew died. The casualty list seems to also have a high percentage of officers as well as cadets.

death of 55 crew members: 22 officers, 7 officer cadets, 9 petty officers, 17 sailors. Dead include the captain Colonel Xue Yong-Peng.