Devonport workers entombed in submarine ballast tank

wo workers were accidentally entombed inside the ballast tank of a nuclear submarine, it has emerged.

Colleagues had mistakenly sealed the tank at Devonport base in Plymouth, where Britain's nuclear submarines are refitted.

The desperate electricians hammered on the tank with a drill and were saved when they got a faint signal on a mobile phone.

The Unite union called it "an extremely unpleasant situation".A report said the submarine was in dry dock last December and the two men were checking sonar gear inside the ballast tank.

When they tried to leave they found a seal had been placed over the entrance in preparation for an air tightness test.

It said: "In an attempt to raise the alarm they used the only thing they had to hand - a battery powered drill to hammer against the tank boundary but to no avail.

"There was no-one in the dock bottom to hear them.

"They switched on their mobile phones but there was no signal at the bottom of the tank so they progressively climbed to the upper reaches of the tank until fortunately one phone managed to get a one bar signal."

Twenty minutes after their ordeal started, the men were freed "shaken but unhurt".Unite said: "We feel for the men involved and what they had to go through because it must have been an extremely unpleasant situation.

"The incident was actually caused by poor management and poor communication.

"We are disappointed it was not in line with Babcock's normal standards."

Babcock said it was "continually focused on delivering and maintaining the highest standards of safety procedures and practices".

It said an internal investigation was carried out and "changes to work control arrangements have been made".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-33601712?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_england&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=english_regions

That must have been utterly terrifying. There have been some very nasty work deaths lately, the wood mill that caught on fire, where they are still searching for bodies, the explosion in Norwich that killed two men.

sassy wrote:That must have been utterly terrifying.  There have been some very nasty work deaths lately, the wood mill that caught on fire, where they are still searching for bodies, the explosion in Norwich that killed two men.  

this kind of thing is not unheard of ,during my training as a navy engineer story`s where often told about this happening ,if they where just myths used to scare the newbies from falling asleep (skyving) in the tanks i don`t know.But this kind of accident was certainly in the back of my mind when i did have to go in to sealable tanks and i often used a rope connected to a bucket with my tools in that would have to be pulled out before the tank could be sealed

common sense really

ps
the anchor chain locker was also a place you had to be very careful of being locked in and buried when the anchor was raised

You've given me the heebie jeebies!!!!!!!!!

sassy wrote:You've given me the heebie jeebies!!!!!!!!!

OH!! that`s nothing i could tell you story`s that would turn your hair white

story`s from the navy ,story`s from the pits my dad used to tell me about  
some of them really put the shivers up my neck just thinking about them

ps i have seen some pretty weird things