Collapsed dock crane pictured on Russian aircraft carrier after maintenance incident (PHOTOS)
Photos of the deck of the Admiral Kuznetsov with a collapsed crane still lying on top have been published online, nearly a week after Russia's only aircraft carrier was damaged in a floating dock incident off Murmansk.
The sinking of the PD-50 floating dock at the 82nd Ship Repair Plant in Northern Russia under the flagship of the Russian Navy on October 30 caused two of the dock’s tower cranes to collapse. One of the cranes ended up falling on the vessel, leaving a 4x5 meter hole in the take-off deck.
Following the incident, the Admiral Kuznetsov was towed to another shipyard in Murmansk to undergo further repairs. Images of the carrier released this weekend showed the crane still lying on top of the deck. The angle of the images, however, does not allow clear sight of the punctured hole.
The maintenance crew will soon decide the best way to proceed with the crane’s removal after a thorough investigation into the incident is concluded.
The PD-50 sank last Tuesday after its cisterns were overloaded with water due to a power outage during a snowstorm in the region. Four employees fell into the ice-cold water and were treated for hypothermia. One of them also sustained an abdominal injury. The PD-50 was one of the largest floating docks in the world, designed for the repair of large ships and submarines. The 330-meter-long and 76-meter-wide vessel was built in 1980 in Sweden for the Soviet Navy, and has a capacity of up to 80,000 tons.
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