Reports are swirling that a Chinese submarine got caught in their own trap. If true, it unfortunately means the entire crew met a horrible death by suffocation. China is officially denying everything, which means it must have happened. The Pooh Bear is looking like Wile E. Coyote and it’s back to the drawing board for the PLA Navy.
Caught in own trap
The trap which allegedly caught their own sub isn’t supposed to exist. That would explain why Chinese military officials are denying that “some 55 Chinese sailors aboard a submarine designated 093-417 are presumed dead after an accident in the Yellow Sea, off of China’s Shandong Province.”
The British say otherwise. They issued an intelligence report detailing how the crew “died after a ‘catastrophic‘ failure of the vessel’s oxygen systems on August 21, 2023.”
It turns out that catching a submarine isn’t that hard to do, if you have a really long chain. “Our understanding is death caused by hypoxia due to a system fault on the submarine. The submarine hit a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese PLA Navy to trap U.S. and allied submarines.”
55 Chinese Sailors including the Captain of the Submarine 093-417, Colonel Xue Yong-Peng are reported to have been Killed in August after a Type-093 Nuclear-Powered Attack Submarine with the People’s Liberation Army Navy was claimed to have become stuck inside of a Chinese… pic.twitter.com/4AYrrffpT8
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 4, 2023
That wasn’t good. “This resulted in systems failures that took six hours to repair and surface the vessel. The onboard oxygen system poisoned the crew after a catastrophic failure.”
Since the report was improperly leaked, British intelligence “has declined to comment on the veracity of the reports.” Beijing is playing it cagey, declaring that they heard the reports but it’s only “a rumor.”
Meaning they are confidant that there isn’t any hard evidence of a nasty submarine trap floating around to prove them wrong.
The report is consistent
Even though the Chinese swear up and down that the British are lying, the report is totally consistent with what would actually happen in such a scenario.
“If the submarine really did run into its own chain and anchor trap, and its batteries were low, then it’s likely the air purifiers and air treatment systems would eventually fail.” The captain should have known it was there, so it’s his fault if they hit it. Not that they can court martial him for it now.
It wouldn’t be so bad if one of our subs got caught in a trap like that because “U.S. and UK submarines have devices that can turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, allowing them to remain submerged for long periods of time.”
"British intelligence reported the sinking of the Chinese nuclear PLA submarine '093-417' with 55 crew members. Allegedly, it fell into a trap (referred to as anti-submarine chains) designed for Western submarines in the Yellow Sea. The oxygen maintenance system failed.
The… pic.twitter.com/C0j5dmjk9k
— Justus Uwakwe (@JustusUwakwe) October 4, 2023
Not every nation has that capability and China is one of the ones who don’t. Karma can be a bleep. The Brits think this particular snare was intended to catch “American or British spy submarines operating off the Chinese coast.” Apparently, they work.
It doesn’t take high tech to catch a nuclear submarine. Any third-world country can get their hands on a chain. “The ‘chain and anchor‘ is a device intended to trap and destroy enemy vessels under the sea. The idea is simple: a heavy chain of metal balls and other objects (that can be up to several miles long) is attached to two anchors deployed on the seafloor.”
It’s really important for your own forces to know where it is. “The size and weight of the chain can cause heavy damage to a vessel’s rudder and propeller, delaying the submarine for hours or even days, which as we can see from the PLA Navy’s alleged incident, can be deadly for the ship and its crew.” You can bet that the sub’s been salvaged from the trap and is running around with a new crew. “It’s one of the more advanced submarines in its fleet, as it runs quieter and carries more advanced weaponry.“
