Quiz #157
Oscar II class nuclear-powered cruise-missile submarine Kursk suffered successive catastrophic explosions and sank on 12 Aug 2000 while on an exercise in the Barents Sea with surface vessels Pyotr Velikiy and Admiral Chabanenko. The first explosion was from a practice torpedo leaking HTP (high-test peroxide) already loaded in one of the torpedo tubes, starting an intense fire in the forward torpedo room which then cooked off several of the combat torpedoes in a second bigger explosion that broke off the forward section of the hull. Most of the 118 crew died in the first few minutes, but 23 took refuge in the furthest compartment where they survived for some time, but eventually ran out of oxygen before rescue divers reached them.
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