A “CATASTROPHIC” systems failure on board a Devonport-based nuclear submarine caused a mass-casualty incident, The Herald can today exclusively reveal.
When HMS Turbulent’s air conditioning plants malfunctioned during a deployment in the sweltering heat of the Indian Ocean, it resulted in 26 casualties.
Eight of those casualties were in a ‘life-threatening’ condition.
Temperatures inside the boat soared to 60 degrees Celsius with 100 per cent humidity as the crew battled to fix the problem miles from land.
With the three-year anniversary of the previously unreported incident having just passed, Ryan Ramsey, the submarine’s Commanding Officer at the time, today revealed: “I genuinely thought there was going to be a loss of life on board. People were going to die.”
The tragic incident happened at about 10.30am around three hours after the hunter-killer submarine had left Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates on May 26, 2011.
The boat was surfaced at the time and Ryan was on the bridge.
It was then that he received an engineering call reporting that the air conditioning plants had “catastrophically” failed.
“I came down below and I was met with this incredible blast of heat,” said the 44-year-old, who lives in Plymstock.
Shortly after, Ryan said he heard the ‘pipe’ signalling a ‘casualty’.
He arrived to his cabin to find the casualty crying and shaking, clearly suffering from heat exhaustion. The medic was checking him over when another pipe sounded.
Within hours many areas of the 275ft submarine had become makeshift sick bays.
“People were just collapsing everywhere, many at their work stations,” said the married father-of-two.
“We had casualties in the control room, the engine room, the bridge, the wardroom, cabins, and the toilets and showers.
“It was absolutely terrifying, and I’m not afraid to say I was scared. I remember looking at a picture of my family quickly thinking ‘we need to pull through this’.
“Walking around the boat I saw true fear in my crew’s eyes. I saw genuine concern because we simply did not know how we were going to get through it.
“I felt like the world was against us. I was looking up and asking ‘when are you going to give me a break to gain the upper hand here?’ People were crying, and it was all about survival.”
Ryan was faced with tough decisions.
He said it was the first time that such a malfunction had been reported on a vessel of this type – and the crew didn’t understand the exact cause of the problem.
To make matters worse the crew couldn’t gain access to the problem areas because the equipment was too hot to touch.
Understandably, due to the fear of “political” issues, he said he couldn’t turn back to dock in Fujairah with a “broken” nuclear submarine.
Instead he had to solve the problem with a fifth of his 130-man crew injured.
Ryan ordered two of the submarine’s hatches to be opened to vent some of the heat, and moved about 15 of the casualties onto the boat’s casing.
But with the outside temperature peaking at 42 degrees Celsius, other crewmen were collapsing in the heat so everyone was brought back inside.
The casualty numbers began to increase again. The casualty pipe sounded again, and then again, and again.
With the air conditioning system also used to cool the sensitive equipment on board, many of the systems were simply shut down. And with the Trafalgar Class submarine’s steering system now malfunctioning, the decision was taken to dive to try to reduce the heat.
“It was touch and go before we dived as to what might happen to us and the submarine,” he said.
“We couldn’t do anything. I could have radioed for help but it would have taken hours for anyone to reach us. In that time people would have died.
“We were alone in our steel tube. There really was no-one to call.”
Diving to a depth of more than 200 metres, the temperatures finally began to drop.
It transpired that the problem was caused by blockages in the submarine’s inlet pipes caused by crustaceans, thought to have amassed during the period of time alongside in Fujairah.
Just 24 hours later, with systems all returned to normal and crew recovering, HMS Turbulent and her crew continued on with the deployment.
