Quoted:
That's odd.  What kind of Mechanical malfunction would kill off the crew, and then leave the sub intact enough to tow back to port?

Chinese Sub Accident
Kills 70 Crew Members

Associated Press


BEIJING -- An accident on a diesel-powered Chinese submarine killed the entire crew of 70 officers and sailors, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

The brief Chinese-language report said the accident occurred "recently" in Chinese waters east of the Neichangshan islands. The islands are in the Yellow Sea, between the northeastern province of Liaoning and North Korea.

The submarine was on an exercise when the accident occurred, and "because of a mechanical malfunction, the 70 crew members on board died," the Xinhua report said.

Xinhua didn't provide further details or say how the crew died.

Quoting "navy sources," the report said the vessel, with the hull number 361, had been towed into port. The brief didn't identify the port. Military analysts said the number appeared to identify the submarine as a Ming-class vessel, often used for patrols and coastal defense.

China's military, which has a tradition of secrecy, didn't comment on the accident.

Xinhua said former President Jiang Zemin, who is chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent condolences to family members Friday.

Michael McGinty, an expert on the Chinese navy at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies in London, said the accident likely happened while the submarine was on the surface. If the accident happened when the boat was underwater, it was less likely China could have recovered it, said Mr. McGinty, a former British submariner.

"For an accident to have been so catastrophic when the submarine was on the surface, I find it a very mysterious thing," he said.

Mr. McGinty said the submarine's batteries might have leaked acid that mixed with seawater, creating toxic chlorine gas that killed the crew. Or the torpedoes could have leaked propellant that poisoned the crew, he said.

China began building Ming-class subs in the 1970s, and they are obsolete by modern standards, according to the Federation of American Scientists, a respected source of military information.

The first three Ming-class subs were completed between 1971 and 1979, and one of them was scrapped after a fire, according to the Web site of Jane's Information Group, another leading source of defense information. China is believed to have more than a dozen Ming-class submarines.

China's submarine fleet totals 66, most of them aging diesel-electric vessels, Mr. McGinty said. The fleet suffers from a chronic shortage of funds, poor training and insufficient maintenance, he said.

But the Chinese are aggressively updating their fleet with Russian-made Kilo-class diesel-electric subs.

Copyright (c) 2003 Associated Press

Updated May 2, 2003 1:12 p.m.