Article

2003-05-02 East Asia

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Posted by Yosemite Sam 2003-05-02 10:05 am|| || Front Page|| [7 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#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|| 2003-05-02 11:01:32|| Front Page Top

#2 Towed back? Entire crew dead? Sounds like saltwater hitting the batteries again.

Posted by Shipman 2003-05-02 11:56:57|| 2003-05-02 11:56:57|| Front Page Top

#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|| [blog.simmins.org] 2003-05-02 12:52:24|| Front Page Top

#4 Not a high-enough mortality rate with SARS

Posted by Frank G 2003-05-02 13:06:50|| 2003-05-02 13:06:50|| Front Page Top

#5 Beat me to it ship,sea water+sulfiric acid=chlorine gas

Posted by raptor 2003-05-02 14:49:48|| 2003-05-02 14:49:48|| Front Page Top

#6 Chlorine gas is a very bad WWI way to die.....

Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-05-02 15:43:50|| 2003-05-02 15:43:50|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2003-05-03 00:19:25|| Front Page Top

09:20 raptor
04:53 R. McLeod
00:55 Uschi
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