Igor Britanov
Encyclopedia
Captain Second Rank Igor Anatolievich Britanov, Soviet Navy
(Ret.) was the captain of the Soviet missile submarine K-219
when it sank off the coast of Bermuda
on October 3, 1986.
. Augusta was certainly operating in proximity, but the United States Navy denies any collision. K-219 had previously experienced a similar casualty; one of her missile tubes was already disabled and welded shut.
Britanov was ordered to have his ship towed to Gadzhievo, her homeport, which was 7,000 kilometers (about 4,300 miles) away. The attempts to tow the ship were unsuccessful, and poison gas began to leak in the aft compartments. Against orders, Britanov ordered the crew evacuated to the towing ship, while he remained onboard K-219. Seeing that Britanov - in their judgement - was not acting efficiently enough, the Soviet Navy's high command ordered the security officer, Valery Pshenichny, to assume command and resume the patrol. Before that order could be carried out, K-219 sank to the bottom of the Hatteras Abyss. The cause is unknown, but it is presumed that Captain Britanov may have scuttled the ship.
Upon his return to the Soviet Union, Britanov was dismissed from the Soviet Navy and charged with negligence, treason and sabotage. While waiting for his trial in Sverdlovsk
in May 1987, Defense Minister Sergei Sokolov resigned and was replaced by Dmitry Yazov
; subsequently, the charges against Britanov were dropped.
was released by Warner Brothers, starring Rutger Hauer as Captain Britanov. In 2001, the real Captain Britanov filed suit against the studio, claiming they did not have his permission to use his story or his character and that he was portrayed by the writers as incompetent - though reportedly, he approved of Hauer's portrayal. In 2004, the courts decided in Captain Britanov's favor, though he declined to state the exact dollar value of the damages.
Soviet Navy
The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...
(Ret.) was the captain of the Soviet missile submarine K-219
Soviet submarine K-219
K-219 was a Navaga-class ballistic missile submarine of the Soviet Navy. She carried 16 SS-N-6 liquid-fuel missiles powered by UDMH with IRFNA, equipped with an estimated 34 nuclear warheads....
when it sank off the coast of Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
on October 3, 1986.
The incident on K-219
That day, while on patrol 680 miles (1,094.4 km) northeast of Bermuda, K-219 suffered an explosion and fire in a missile tube. The seal in a missile hatch cover failed, allowing seawater to leak into the missile tube and react with residue from the missile's liquid fuel. The Soviet Navy claimed that the leak was caused by a collision with USS Augusta (SSN-710)USS Augusta (SSN-710)
USS Augusta , a Los Angeles-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Augusta, Maine....
. Augusta was certainly operating in proximity, but the United States Navy denies any collision. K-219 had previously experienced a similar casualty; one of her missile tubes was already disabled and welded shut.
Britanov was ordered to have his ship towed to Gadzhievo, her homeport, which was 7,000 kilometers (about 4,300 miles) away. The attempts to tow the ship were unsuccessful, and poison gas began to leak in the aft compartments. Against orders, Britanov ordered the crew evacuated to the towing ship, while he remained onboard K-219. Seeing that Britanov - in their judgement - was not acting efficiently enough, the Soviet Navy's high command ordered the security officer, Valery Pshenichny, to assume command and resume the patrol. Before that order could be carried out, K-219 sank to the bottom of the Hatteras Abyss. The cause is unknown, but it is presumed that Captain Britanov may have scuttled the ship.
Upon his return to the Soviet Union, Britanov was dismissed from the Soviet Navy and charged with negligence, treason and sabotage. While waiting for his trial in Sverdlovsk
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
in May 1987, Defense Minister Sergei Sokolov resigned and was replaced by Dmitry Yazov
Dmitry Yazov
Dmitry Timofeyevich Yazov was the last Marshal of the Soviet Union to be appointed before the collapse of the Soviet Union . He was the only Marshal of the Soviet Union to be born in Siberia....
; subsequently, the charges against Britanov were dropped.
Not a collision?
The Soviet Union - and apparently to this day, the Russian government - claimed that the K-219 collided with Augusta off the coast of Bermuda, and that is what resulted in the sinking of the submarine. The United States Navy has denied this, and - surprisingly - so has Captain Britanov himself. In an interview with Lt. Cmdr. Wayne Grasdock on August 5, 1998, Britanov stated that in the eyes of the Russian government, there were no heroes on K-219. When asked how many times he was invited to be a guest speaker at Russian functions, he replied he was not invited at all. "I do not tell the story the way my government wants me to tell it," Britanov explained. "I did not collide with an American sub.”The Hostile Waters controversy
In 1997, a film of the incident called Hostile WatersHostile Waters (film)
Hostile Waters is a British 1997 television film about the loss of the K-219, a Yankee I class nuclear ballistic missile sub. The film stars Rutger Hauer as the commander of K-219 and claims to be based on the true story. The film was produced by World Productions for the BBC and HBO, in...
was released by Warner Brothers, starring Rutger Hauer as Captain Britanov. In 2001, the real Captain Britanov filed suit against the studio, claiming they did not have his permission to use his story or his character and that he was portrayed by the writers as incompetent - though reportedly, he approved of Hauer's portrayal. In 2004, the courts decided in Captain Britanov's favor, though he declined to state the exact dollar value of the damages.
