Talking about industrial accidents, it is difficult to quantify the impact that the adoption of a human factors approach has had on aviation safety because accidents tend to be so rare. However, this impact can be pointed out by studying some cases of submarines’ accidents.
What’s a submarine?
Originally, the word submarine means “under the sea”.
A submarine is a specialized watercraft, a sort of ship that can operate underwater and for a long time.
Designs for such a boat date back to the 1500s.
In the 19th century, the first useful submarines began to appear. But it wasn't until World War I that the first truly practical submarines emerged.
Now days, submarines are not only used by navies but also for marine and freshwater science and for work at depths too great for human divers. Due to the variety of theses activities, there are different types of submarines:
· Nuclear powered submarines and other large submarines are classed as ships.
· Modern attack submarines are known as fast attack subs
· Large subs carrying strategic nuclear missiles known as "boomers" in the United States Navy, and "bombers" in the Royal Navy.
· Two-man vessel that can examine the sea floor for few hours
· Underground subsea-level houses built in the 1950s
· Typhoon class that can remain submerged for months and carry enough nuclear missiles to destroy hundreds of cities.
· Rescue submarines like the DSRV or recently rescued AS-28,
· Tiny one-person human powered subs intended for competitions between universities.
Major submarines’ accidents
History relates a lot of accidents involving submarines. Most of them took place during the Cold War, but some are more recent and don’t even imply major combat
Since the year 2000 there have been 9 major naval incidents involving submarines.
There were three Russian submarine incidents, along with three United States submarine incidents, one Chinese incident, one Canadian, and one Australian incident.
USS Greeneville Collision
In 2001, the American submarine USS Greeneville struck and sank a Japanese high-school training ship, Ehime-Maru, killing nine Japanese aboard, including four students, 10 miles off the coast of O'ahu. The accidents was a result of a ineffective periscope search by the submarine's captain , bad communication among the crew and distractions caused by the presence of the 16 civilian guests aboard the submarine.
USS Dolphin Major Flooding and Fire
In May 2002, the American submarine USS Dolphin experienced severe flooding and fires off the coast of San Diego, California. The ship was left by the crew. No one was seriously injured.
USS Hartford grounding
On 25 October 2003 Hartford (SSN-768), a United States Navy nuclear powered Los Angeles-class submarine ran aground while performing routine maneuvers in the harbour of La Maddalena, Sardinia. Approximately 9 million dollars worth of damage were done to the submarine, and it was out of service for seven months. A report into accident revealed that basic navigation errors combined with equipment failures were to blame for the submarine running into the rocky shallows.
The incident was reported to the public only three weeks later.There was some outcry in the Italian press, especially since a nuclear submarine was involved. Subsequent investigations have shown that there was no leak from the submarine
Ming 361 Loss of All Personnel
In May 2003, China announced that the entire ship's crew (70 people) had been killed aboard Ming 361 due to a mechanical malfunction. The accident took place off the coast of Liaoning province in northeast China. The cause of the accident is still unknown, but it is believed that the crew suffocated due to malfunctioning diesel engines, which consumed all the oxygen present in the interior of the submarine.
Kursk Disaster:
In the year 2000,an explosion equivalent to 3-7 tons of TNT and large enough to register on seismographs across Northern Europe lead to the wreckage of the Russian submarine Kursk and the death of the 118 sailors despite an international rescue effort.
K-159 Sinking
In August 2003, the Russian November class submarine K-159 sank in the Barents Sea. Of the skeleton crew of ten aboard the submarine, nine perished in the cold waters of the Barents Sea.
The AS-28 Emergency
On August 5, 2005 the Russian Priz class AS-28 Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle on a military mission) off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, in Berezovaya Bay, became entangled by a fishing net, or possibly by cables belonging to an underwater antenna assembly. The submarine was trapped and sank to the seafloor at a depth of 190 m (600 ft), too deep for the crew to escape the submarine and swim to the surface. At the Russian Navy’s request for assistance, Japan sent four ships with rescue equipment. Britain and the United States both airlifted unmanned Scorpio vessels to the scene. The British Scorpio 45 from the Royal Navy was first on the scene and was able to cut the entangling debris, releasing the submarine, which then made its way to the surface, having nearly exhausted its air supply. All 7 crew members were rescued safely.
Top 10 of movies relating some of those accidents
********************************* K-19 - The Widowmaker (2002) directed by Kathryn Bigelow
It is about a Soviet nuclear submarine on its maiden voyage when things go drastically wrong. The film illustrates a true story that actually took place in 1961. A very serious malfunction occurs in the cooling system of this new Soviet submarine, which cools the reactor core. The resourceful Captain Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) tries everything he and his crew can think of to keep the core from a melt down… The crew was not geared up to handle this sort of emergency. They are forced to work on the core with substandard equipment, and this has deadly consequences.
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# 9. Run Silent - Run Deep (1958): directed by Robert Wise
Because his previous sub was sunk by the Japanese under highly suspect circumstances, Richardson (commander) inspires nothing but animosity from his new crew. Particularly hostile is executive officer Lt. Jim Bledsoe (Burt Lancaster) , who'd assumed that he was next in line to command the Nerka. Obsessed with tracking down the Japanese destroyer that sank his old sub, Richardson drives his crew mercilessly, and even disobeys direct orders from his own higher-ups. The Nerka manages to blast the Japanese vessel out of the waters, but in so doing the sub is placed in dire peril in enemy waters. In his desperate efforts to save the Nerka, Richardson at long last wins the respect of Bledsoe and the rest of the crew.
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# 8. Torpedo Run (1958) directed by Joseph Pevney
US submarine fighting against the Japanese Empire during World War II.
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# 7. The Enemy Below (1957) directed by Dick PowellEnemy Below was one of the first movies to try and portray the harsh lifestyle of a wartime submarine crew. Considering the film was made in 1957, Dick Powell did a splendid job making the film with the resources of the time. Enemy Below is about a US Destroyer verses a German U-boat during the World War II era. The film shows both sides, both commanders, both of their predicaments, and both boats. The ultimate game of chess with a twist of anti-war stirred. Robert Michum and Curd Jurgens played the opposing Captains, and both did an excellent job acting.
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# 6. U-571 (2000) directed by Jonathan Mostow
U-571 is a film concerning how the Allies captured the secrets to the German Enigma machine during World War II.
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# 5. CSS Hunley (1999) backed by Ted Turner.
The film CSS Hunley was made for TV in 1999 by Turner Network Television and stars Donald Sutherland. The film like most other TNT civil war films was historically accurate. CSS Hunley is about a Confederate made submarine during the American Civil War era. The problem with this is that there were no submarines in that era. The CSS Hunley was one of the first submarines ever made. The losses that occurred during the developmental stages were crazy! The thing was little more than a round tube with a propeller on one end, and a long shaft on the other where an explosive charge could be placed. There were nine volunteers inside pedaling on the crank the made the propeller work. The idea was to blast the Union blockade out of the water. The CSS Hunley was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship (Housatonic) in combat.
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# 4. The Hunt For Red October (1990) directed by John McTiernan.
It is about the Soviet Unions top submarine commander Captain Ramias, (Sean Connery) who is commanding the pride of the Soviet submarine fleet, The Red October . He is deadheading towards the United States in the deadliest and stealthiest nuclear submarine ever made. Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) is a top man from the CIA who had studied Captain Ramias in some detail. The two play cat and mouse in a deadly game of chess.
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# 3. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) directed by Richard Fleischer
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is based on Jules Verne’s novel and was Walt Disney’s first major motion picture. The genius Captain Nemo has turned his back on society and lives off of the sea and in the sea. He manages to do this aboard an awesome submarine called the Nautilus.
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# 2. Crimson Tide (1995) directed by Tony Scott
Crimson Tide is about one of the most powerful men in the world, the commander (Gene Hackman) of a nuclear submarine. His Executive Officer Hunter, (Denzel Washington) have completely different views on the world war philosophy and current events. Things heat up very fast when a break-away faction in the former Soviet Union get it’s hands on some nuclear missiles along with the launch codes. To make things even more interesting their submarine looses radio contact with it’s command, then comes under attack by a Russian AKULA class attack submarine
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Human factors
Those films are the real and undeniable proof of what we said above in the introduction: most of them illustrate directly or indirectly the impact of human factors in industrial accidents.
Human organisation in submarines:
In fact lot of films pointed out the extremely forcing conditions that submariners face every day.
One of the most famous is Das Boot (1981). This film is about a German U-boat and its crew during world war II, in the Atlantic. Petersen(the director) takes us along on the suicidal missions and attacks of a U boat. The endless hours, days and months of sheer boredom sitting below the surface of the sea. Then in a split second they are in battle and maneuvering for their lives. The depth charges that a submarine crew must endure are nerve shattering. The tactics that the captain (Jürgen Prochnow) uses are innovative and unique, otherwise the boat would have no chance. War time submariners endure all kinds of hell. They live, eat and sleep in a grimy, confined, noisy, treacherous tube filled with the stench of diesel fuel.
Fortunately, now days, living conditions are much better thanks to technological development and the improvement of the organisation described below.
Classically, the forces in the operational submarines are organized in two crews in order to be able to face up to the intensity of the activities in these types of ships.
For example, in the French navy, the planning of one of the tow crews is established on a 34 consecutive week’s cycle:
17 weeks on board at sea, then 5 weeks when they maintain the ship in the harbour in collaboration with the alternative crew, then 6 weeks on holydays to relax, and the sixth last weeks, they have an intense training on various simulators.
The second crew follows an opposite cycle.
Crew size depends on the class or type of submarine, but a typical submarine would have a crew of around 120 officers and men, and the oldest man is usually the commanding officer who is on average between 35 and 45 years old. Women are not allowed on board, because of medical concerns for the safety of the foetus. A qualified doctor is obviously embarked on the submarine, and for some exceptional operations, a psychologist is also embarked to help the submariners with the distance from home and the isolation and the lack of women and natural light.
Like every others surface ship, submarine’s days are divided in 4 watches of 6 hours. Then, the crew is divided in two teams which will spend alternatively 6 hours “off-watch” and 6 hours “on-watch” during the entire time that the submarine is at sea. When they would be “on-watch”, they will be operating their assigned equipment. And when they would be “off-watch”, they will basically eat and sleep, but also reading, watching TV, or training to keep fit. They are allowed to carry on board exercise bikes or others training machines.
Thanks to today’s communication technologies, submariners can send and check their emails in harbour and in the near future at sea without compromising submarine security. However, submarine communicates with bases or other ships through radio or satellites.