Australia: Submarine's Crew Was 20 Seconds From Death

Photo: HMAS Dechaineux

From The Australian:

BUT for a few desperate seconds, it would have been our worst military disaster since the Voyager.

The flood aboard the HMAS Dechaineux on February 12, 2003, was the catalyst for the series of submarine safety reforms revealed in The Australian today.

The incident remains seared in the minds of the submarine's 55 crew who came within 20 seconds of death.

"It changed my life," Able Seaman Geordie Bunting said later. "It is the closest I would like to come to death.

"I don't think there was anybody on our boat who wasn't shit-scared that day. Another five seconds and we would have been in big trouble ... another 10 and you have got to question whether we could have surfaced."

The accident happened off the coast of Perth when the Dechaineux had dived to its deepest depth in order to test its systems under full pressure.

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My Comment: Something to ponder about .... and to give thanks that the worse did not happen.