The human error that sank China’s most advanced nuclear-powered submarine without leaving port

The efforts of China to increase their naval force suffered a severe setback last spring. In an incident initially hidden by Beijingbut revealed in September thanks to images taken by satellite, the People’s Liberation Army’s most advanced nuclear-powered submarine sank at its shipyard for reasons, until now, unknown. According to The Washington Times, the sinking of the modern submarine occurred in the shipyard Shuangliulocated on the river Yangtzenearly Wuhan. The cause was human error when an operator left a hatch open that flooded him.

The sunken submarine is the first of the class Zhou that China is building. A model about which no information has emerged beyond being a hybrid submarine equipped with a small nuclear reactor for electrical energy and also diesel engines. It has a distinctive design with X-shaped stern for easy maneuverability.

In a satellite image taken on April 26, the submarine is seen docked at the shipyard, but later images from June showed, in the same place, to ‘large floating cranes’ that ‘arrived in early June to rescue the submarine from the river bed’according to The Wall Street Journal last September.

The unusual activity in the port was detected by Tom Shugartdeputy at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) think tank and retired U.S. Navy underwater warfare officer, who had previously identified the submarine in other satellite images in July.

After learning of the accident, there was speculation that The submarine was carrying nuclear fuel at the time of the sinkingbut images taken since then have shown no signs of operations other than lifting the submarine from its bed. It is also unknown if there were any victims in the sinking.

‘It is not surprising that the People’s Liberation Army Navy tries to hide the fact that its new nuclear-powered attack submarine, the first of its class, sank in dock‘, a US defense official told TWSJ.

The submarine was finally rescuedbut it will have many months of repairs ahead of it. According to United States Defense sources cited by The Washington Times, the accident occurred due to the ‘operator error’ by leaving a hatch open that allowed the submersible to flood. ‘They were wrong’the source said, adding that the error It was not the result of a systemic problem in the construction of the submarine.