New | PLA reveals how captain 'stopped submarine from falling into 3,000-metre trench'
Officer awarded military's second-highest honour for saving crew from certain death, but incident also a rare admission of machinery failure
China’s military has given top awards to the captain and crew of a submarine that stopped their ailing vessel from plummeting into an ocean trench 3,000 metres deep and averting a fatal crash.
However, the incident, which appeared in a front-page PLA Daily report about the awards, also constituted a rare admission by the People’s Liberation Army of a malfunction in military hardware.
The Central Military Commission cited Wang Hongli, captain of the submarine number 372, for calmly reversing the disaster during a routine patrol in deep waters. It happened at an undisclosed location earlier this year.
The report said the submarine encountered a sudden fall in water density and a subsequent change in water pressure, causing damage to the pipelines of the engine room.
The sub started to plunge straight into a deep trench in the ocean.
Wang, of the South Sea Fleet, calmly gave out orders and within three minutes, steered them out of danger, the report said.