Yellow submarine rescue

The Royal Navy team which played a vital role in the international rescue of seven Russian sailors trapped in a sunken submersible, are celebrating a successful end to their mission.

The team, which was deployed with a SCORPIO 45 Remotely Operated Vehicle(ROV), took about five hours to cut a Russian Priz submersible free after it became tangled in fishing nets and cables.

Following a request from Russia for assistance, the SCORPIO 45 and its six-strong operating crew were flown in a RAF Boeing C-17 aircraft to Petropaclask, Kamchatka in Russia on Friday night.

The SCORPIO 45 unit was immediately transferred onto a Russian cable-laying vessel and, on Saturday night, sailed to the site of the incident, about 60 nautical miles offshore. A small team of divers and medical personnel from the US Navy accompanied the team.

The vessel arrived at the scene at around 10pm UK time on August 6th. The SCORPIO 45 was quickly deployed, reaching the stranded vessel about an hour later.