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| East Asia |
| Ming Class Chinese Sub Goes Down |
| 2003-05-02 |
| EFL In late April or early May 2003 70 sailors on board the No. 361 submarine were killed in an accident that occured off the Chinese coast, east of Neichangshan. China's Xinhua reported the news on May 2 stating that the submarine was either being towed or had already been towed back to an unidentified port. The cause of the accident was not initially disclosed. |
| Posted by:Yosemite Sam |
| #7 Too many possibilities to speculate. And, there is no reason to give a gram of weight to what appears in the official Chinese press on this. Could be "friendly fire" during a training exercise. Could be enemy fire. Could be sabotage by a crew member or dockyard worker. Could be a weapons malfunction. Could be a suicide by the captain or an officer. Could be an awful lot of things. I doubt we'll ever know the truth. All that matters is, we have little to fear from Chinese submarines in a battle environment. The Japanese submarine force did a pretty good job of extinguishing itself during WWII as well, so perhaps it's a regional tradition. |
| Posted by: tbn 2003-05-03 00:19:25 |
| #6 Chlorine gas is a very bad WWI way to die..... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-05-02 15:43:50 |
| #5 Beat me to it ship,sea water+sulfiric acid=chlorine gas |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-05-02 14:49:48 |
| #4 Not a high-enough mortality rate with SARS |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-05-02 13:06:50 |
| #3 SARS? Everybody on board gets sick. Command refuses to allow them to return to port. All die. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-05-02 12:52:24 |
| #2 Towed back? Entire crew dead? Sounds like saltwater hitting the batteries again. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-05-02 11:56:57 |
| #1 The submarine was on an exercise when the accident occurred, and "because of a mechanical malfunction, the 70 crew members on board died," the Xinhua report said. It's a diesel boat. I wonder what blew up? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-05-02 11:01:32 |