Safe after 76 hours trapped on seabed

• Trapped men maybe had only 8 hours of oxygen left

• UK rescue craft played major part in salvation

Key quote

"Everything went very well - it all fitted into place. The guys were absolutely elated to have been able to help. It shows what we are capable of doing - reaching the scene within 36 hours of a call-out with a vehicle in the water effecting a rescue." - Ben Sharples, Scorpio 45 project director

Story in full

AFTER 76 hours entombed at the bottom of the Pacific, the young Russian mini-submarine commander allowed himself a faint smile as he emerged from an ordeal that had a nation and the world holding its breath.

With a peremptory salute he led his crew down the gangway before telling the waiting world: "I feel good."

The race against time had been close. With just six hours of oxygen left, the trapped rescue submarine and its seven occupants were plucked to safety by a Scottish-based rescue craft.

Russia's defence minister personally thanked the rescuers while the families of the crew members "danced for joy".

During the final hours Lieutenant Vyacheslav Milashevsky had instructed his crew to don thermal suits, lie still and breathe lightly in the darkened mini-submarine to eke out the remaining oxygen as the temperature inside dipped to 5C.

The lights were switched off and there was only sporadic contact with the surface. One crewman said: "It was cold, cold, very cold."

Commander Ian Riches, the Royal Navy rescue team leader, said: "It must be like being inside a lift trapped between floors but a lot, lot deeper, cold and lonely."

Lt Milashevsky's wife said: "I was happy, I cried."

Almost exactly five years on from the Kursk disaster, the world again watched in horror as another Russian submarine drama unfolded. But fortunately for those inside the tiny AS-28 Priz in 600ft of water off the Kamchatka peninsula, the outcome was very different.

While the Russian authorities failed to call for help until several days after an explosion aboard the Kursk, their much speedier plea for assistance for the Priz enabled the Renfrew-based Royal Navy submarine escape and rescue team to arrive in the nick of time.

Commander Riches said the rescuers were "absolutely overjoyed" at their success. He said there was a charge across the deck of their Russian support ship after the freed craft surfaced on the opposite side from which they were expecting it.

The Russian navy expressed its sincere gratitude, but President Vladimir Putin has ordered an inquiry into the incident and Russian politicians have demanded to know why its navy did not have suitable rescue craft of its own.

The Royal Navy-led crew flew from Scotland on Friday night, uncertain whether the trapped Russians would have enough air to hold out.

Commander Riches had told The Scotsman at Prestwick on Friday that the team might be the Russians' best hope - and he was right. The team was able to prepare its remotely operated Scorpio 45 vehicle during the ten-hour flight, so it was ready to be launched shortly after reaching the scene late on Saturday night.

The successful operation came in stark contrast to the secrecy surrounding the Kursk incident, to which the team had also been belatedly called, but never deployed.

Team members found themselves working at the weekend with Russians with whom they had staged a joint submarine rescue exercise off the Italian coast just three weeks ago.

The Russian AS-28 craft, just longer than a bus, became entangled in fishing nets and underwater antennae during a combat training exercise on Thursday.

Less than 24 hours later, in response to a plea for international assistance, the British team had mobilised along with counterparts in the United States and Japan.

Russian ships had tried to drag the submarine into shallower water where divers could reach it, but were able to move it only about 100 yards.

The Scorpio 45, the size of a Mini car, was launched from the deck of a Russian cable-laying ship, with its cutting equipment slicing through the nets and cables to free the stricken mini-submarine and enable it to re-surface. Commander Riches said that by the time the trapped men were raised to the surface, "they were running out of oxygen."

"There were a lot of difficulties involved, but it was extremely rewarding and it wouldn't have been possible without the superb co-operation of the Russian navy.

"We went down using our cameras and our sonar and located the mini-submarine near the seabed tangled up in a quite considerable mess of fishing nets. It was wrapped around her propeller and wrapped around her as well."

Ben Sharples, the project director for the Scorpio 45's civilian operators, said: "It is fantastic for both the Russian crew and for our team, as this is what they are trained for.

"Everything went very well - it all fitted into place. The guys were absolutely elated to have been able to help. It shows what we are capable of doing - reaching the scene within 36 hours of a call-out with a vehicle in the water effecting a rescue."

Sergei Ivanov, the Russian defence minister who will head the government inquiry, said: "We have seen in deeds, not in words, what the brotherhood of the sea means." He said the biggest cable was from a fishing net laid by poachers.

Admiral Viktor Fyodorov, the commander of Russia's Pacific fleet, said: "Today was a very happy event."

But Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist party leader, said: "It is completely incomprehensible why the British have the necessary technology, but we don't."

The US had also sent remote-controlled underwater vehicles for the rescue, but they arrived several hours after the British vehicle and were not used.