Another fine day for Russia’s Navy

Russian Navy Sinks Flagship With Parade Mine:

The Neukrotimy (“Indomitable”) arrived in St. Petersburg for celebrations to mark Russian Navy Day on July 26. On July 30, it suddenly submerged below its waterline, collecting water in its engine compartment, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

[Kommersant] said that the sailors planned to make a show of destroying a dummy sea mine during Sunday’s parade. The dummy, which still had about 30 kilograms of TNT in it, was supposed to create a huge splash that would spray the spectators on the embankment. However, the current brought the bomb up to the ship’s hull together with the anchor and it exploded causing the Neukrotimy to partially submerge.

Military prosecutors have opened a criminal case although, thankfully, no-one was injured in the incident.  You really couldn’t make it up, could you?

Update:  As the BBC reports, in Russia it doesn’t just rain – it pours.  Three ships in total have had accidents on the Neva river in St Petersburg this weekend – as well as the the Neukrotimy’s mishap detailed above, the Irkutsk crunched into the Troitskiy Bridge on Sunday and an un-named cargo ship crashed into the Tushkov bridge early this morning.

Add to this a blast on a decommissioned nuclear submarine in Severodvinsk that killed one person, and it’s fair to say that Russia’s navy day celebrations are not going with quite the bang the Admiralty had intended.