Students found traces of one of the largest disasters in the Black Sea

Oil spills were found in the Black Sea near the Novorossiysk Bay (territory of the Russian Federation). They are located exactly at the point where the Admiral Nakhimov passenger vessel sank at a depth of 47 meters.

Oil products spills on the surface of the water, using satellite imagery analysis, were identified by students of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), members of the RiskSat interregional project group, which specializes in aerospace education for young people.

The participants studied the images taken from space in July – October this year, and payed attention to long spots grouping near one point, the press service of the MAI reported.

“The spills look like ruled slicks, which is typical for underwater sources of oil. In this case, this indicates the release of residues of oil products that were in the fuel tanks of the liner. The images from space clearly show that the pollution is not sewage emissions or biogenic slicks. The appearance of oil products spills on the sea surface above the emergency site indicates the need to inspect the sunken vessel,” explained the project manager Oleksiy Kucheiko, whose words are quoted in the message.

The difficulty was that in addition to the sunken liner, the area where the spots were found included navigable routes and anchorage, as well as a deep-water sewer outlet. However, there were no such oil spots in this place before.

The death of the liner

Passenger liner “Admiral Nakhimov” sank on August 31st, 1986 after collision with dry cargo vessel “Petr Vasev”. There were 1243 people on board – passengers and crew. 423 of them died. This disaster is the largest in the Black Sea, of those that occurred in peacetime.

Number of deaths:

In March 1987, the trial of the captains of the Admiral Nakhimov V. Markov and the dry cargo vessel “Petr Vasev” V. Tkachenko took place in Odesa. Both were found guilty under the article and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In November 1992, by decrees of the presidents of Ukraine and Russia, both captains, one of whom was serving a sentence in Russia, the other in Ukraine, were released. Captain Viktor Tkachenko, changing his surname to his wife’s surname, emigrated to Israel. In September 2003, a yacht under his command crashed near Newfoundland. Later, the wreckage of the yacht and the dead people, including the captain, were found off the Canadian coast. V. Tkachenko was buried in Tel Aviv. Captain Vadim Markov stayed to live in Odesa. Immediately after his release, he worked in the Black Sea Shipping Company as a captain-mentor on passenger vessels. After a serious illness, Markov died on May 31st, 2007 in Odesa.

Information about Admiral Nakhimov

The liner “Admiral Nakhimov” was built in Germany and launched in 1925, under the name “Berlin”. As a result of the Second World War, it went to the USSR and belonged to the Black Sea Shipping Company with a home port of Odesa. Moreover, in 1947, Soviet specialists raised the vessel from the bottom of the Baltic Sea off the coast of Poland, where the Berlin sank in January 1945, having received holes from a mine.

The vessel wass 174 meters long and 21 meters wide.

In 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Admiral Nakhimov was brought in to transport soldiers to Cuba.

In 1979, there were two secret voyages Odesa – Cuba (Matanzas) – Ethiopia (Asseb) – Cuba (Matanzas) – Ethiopia (Asseb) – Illichivsk – with a total duration of about six months to deliver Cuban troops to participate in hostilities in Africa.

In 1980, the feature film “Ladies Invite Gentlemen” was filmed on board the steamer “Admiral Nakhimov”.