The Sinking of the Kursk is one of the tragedies in the Russian Navy service in August of 2000. The sinking was the believed result of a huge onboard explosion and later lost of the vessel. All 118 crewmembers believed on board the vessel at the time of the accident were killed and went down with their ship.
The Kursk was a giant submarine in the Russian fleet, and it sank in 350 feet of water on a Saturday, August 12th, 2000, in the waters of the Barents Sea. What occurred exactly may never be known, but the authorities in Russia have called the incident a result of a “huge catastrophe” that occurred at lighting speed.
After over a week of investigation after the sinking, the military was not able to find a single crewmember that survived, and it is known to be one of the saddest days in the entire Russian Navy and their long history.
The Russian Navy has had a number of vessel and Navy disasters over the years, and it has been a sad situation that many believe is due to the lack of support for the Russian military at large following the end of the cold war.
Because of the shrinking military, a sagging budget and overall lack of priority for the Russian military, situations such as the loss of the nuclear submarine Kursk will happen in any military that is unable to support their own efforts sufficiently. Diving in the area is not possible, both because of the depth of the water, and because of the site being declared off limits by the Russian Military.
The Kursk and its wreckage were investigated by both Russian divers and Norwegian specially trained deep sea recovery divers, but it is still not known exactly what happened that sad August Saturday about 8 years ago.