According to a British intelligence report, a Chinese nuclear submarine’s ventilation system failed in the Yellow Sea in August, killing 55 crew members, including 22 officers. Beijing, which has built one of the world’s most powerful navies in recent decades, has denied this.
Published on: May 10, 2023 – 5:07 p.m
5 minutes
What happened to the crew of a Chinese Shang-class nuclear submarine on August 21? Based on a British intelligence report, the Chron revealed on Tuesday, October 3, that 55 sailors had suffocated after a failure in their submersible’s ventilation system, confirming a rumor that had been circulating for several weeks.
“The incident occurred at 8:12 a.m. local time and resulted in the deaths of 55 crew members: 22 officers, 7 cadets, 9 petty officers and 17 sailors. The submarine’s commander, Col. Xue Yong-Peng, was one of the victims,” the report said, citing a failure in the oxygen system.
According to British intelligence, the events occurred in the Yellow Sea off the coast of China’s Shandong province, near Shanghai, quoted by the English tabloid.
This alleged accident has already been mentioned by the American intelligence services and was first reported on the Defense questions fueled.
China, for its part, denied this information. There is currently no independent confirmation of the facts and their development.
“It doesn’t look like it’s been seen since, even if a submarine by definition has to remain discreet,” says former naval officer François Narolles, highlighting the difficulty of clearly identifying this type of building.
According to the British report, it is a Type 093-417 submarine, 110 meters long and 11 meters wide, capable of carrying 22 torpedoes as well as anti-ship cruise missiles.
Caught in his own trap
According to the British intelligence scenario, the submarine suffered a critical failure after being blocked by an “anchor chain and barrier” used by the Chinese navy to corral enemy ships.
“Most commonly it is a network of steel circles pulled vertically by buoys and downwards by anchors and weights. The meshes can be between 20 cm and 1 m, depending on whether we want to deter swimmers, torpedoes or submarines from fighting,” explains François Narolles.
Several hypotheses could explain the collision: a submarine propulsion error, drifting away from the obstacle or even human error, the expert adds.
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Another question raised by this extremely rare accident: Why does the ventilation system no longer work? According to the British intelligence report, the submarine remained stuck for only six hours. A small thing for a machine designed to navigate underwater for several months. Was the shock so severe that the submarine depressurized? Have the efforts to free the building from its trap drained its batteries?
“We can imagine that the battery backup systems have failed. Then the air in particular becomes too polluted with CO2, and that is the end. But there are many other possible scenarios,” explains François Narolles.
A hard blow for Beijing
This incident would be a major setback for Beijing as the submarine affected by this alleged accident is one of the flagships of the Chinese Navy. Commissioned in 2006, it is one of six Type 093 submarines – known in NATO as the Shang class – available to the People’s Republic of China Army.
In recent decades, the Chinese government has increased investment to bolster its navy’s presence in the Indo-Pacific, an area at the center of Sino-American rivalry. According to a Pentagon report released in November 2022, China now has the largest navy in the world by number of buildings.
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“The more buildings we have, the more the likelihood of an accident multiplies. The Chinese Navy and especially its submarines are growing and improving their capabilities and skills,” emphasizes François Narolles, emphasizing that all the world’s navies are not immune to tragic human error.
In June 2017, seven sailors from a US destroyer died in a collision with a Philippine container ship. The following year, Norway lost a frigate worth 300 million euros due to human error and a possible design flaw. In 2019, a fire on a Russian research submarine killed 14 people.
In China, it is not the first time that the Navy has suffered a fatal accident on board a submarine. In 2003, 70 Chinese sailors died due to “mechanical failure.” At that time, Beijing communicated briefly and succinctly about the incident. I am not sure whether the Chinese authorities are ready today to lift some of the veil on a matter that may well remain a mystery.