Russia loses world's largest floating dock when repairing her only aircraft carrier

Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov suffered an accident in the floating dock of a shipyard near Murmansk.

Photo: Source: Mil.ru

According to representatives of the shipyard, where the accident occurred, interruptions in electricity supplies caused the tanks of PD-50 floating dock to sink.

The accident occurred when the Admiral Kuznetsov was exiting the dock. According to the source, the tanks of the PD-50 dock got filled with water because of blackouts thus causing the dock, in which workers were staying, to sink to the bottom of the sea.

There were about 60 people inside the dock during the moment when the accident occurred. Most of them could escape to safety. However, five people failed to do it. Four of them have already been found, but one person is still missing.

According to preliminary data, the dock was flooded as a result of violations of the rules of the technical use of ship-raising mechanisms. During the accident, two tower cranes fell on the Admiral Kuznetsov. One of them crashed on the deck of the aircraft carrier and damaged the take-off deck of the ship. One of the cranes left a 4x5 meter hole in structural parts of the ship that can be repaired easily.

It was reported that the accident would not affect the repair schedule, because the part of the ship, on which the crane fell, was under repairs anyway. It was said that the crane caused insignificant damage to the hull of the ship, but did not harm vital equipment. It was said that the crane fell from the height of about 15 meters.

About 70 people were evacuated from the plant during the accident. A criminal case has been initiated into the accident under Part 2 of Article 216 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Violation of safety rules, which resulted in the death of a person by negligence").

After the accident, the Admiral Kuznetsov was towed to the 35th shipyard of Zvezdochka enterprise.
 
The accident with PD-50 floating dock of the 82nd Ship Repair Plant has not created a critical situation for maintaining combat readiness and repairs of large ships of the Russian Navy, Interfax reports with reference to a source familiar with the situation. Russia has another floating dock -  PD-190. Like the sunken PD-50, the PD-190 is capable of servicing large ships, like the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier.