'Systemic Failures' Led to Death of Two Sailors on Submarine

Two sailors were killed on a nuclear-powered submarine under the Arctic as a result of "systemic failures" and a "culture of complacency", a coroner said yesterday.

Anthony Huntrod, 20, from Sunderland, and Paul McCann, 32, from Halesowen, West Midlands, died when an oxygen generator unit exploded while HMS Tireless was on an exercise with the US navy 170 miles north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, two years ago.

Delivering a verdict which was strongly criticised by one of the families, Sunderland coroner Derek Winter told the court that "systemic failures led to the contamination and damage" of the generators which caused them to explode.

In the seven-week inquest the coroner heard that a batch of around 1,000 self-contained oxygen generators (Scog), which had been left in a hazardous waste depot in Devonport, were put back into navy service.

He said Christopher Clark, a civil servant, decided to bring them back into use because he wanted to cut costs for the MoD. Winter said: "He did not give any consideration to the safety implications of returning Scogs which had been selected for consignment to a hazardous waste store and actually stored in the conditions of such a store. His decision was inappropriate."

Winter said it was "a significant possibility" that the Scog which exploded had been sent to the dump, but it was impossible to say because of the way the oxygen units were tracked and accounted for.

"There was a culture of complacency regarding the risks posed by Scogs and a tolerance of practices likely to increase those risks", he said.

The inquest heard that the units could burn with "ferocious violence" if they were contaminated or damaged.

The blast happened in a cramped compartment which quickly filled with smoke.

The force of the blast slammed hatch doors shut and buckled them, trapping the men inside. Postmortems revealed Huntrod, who had only recently qualified as a sailor, died from multiple injuries, while McCann, who was due to leave the navy and marry, died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The coroner also praised the bravery of the crew singling out Richard Holleworth, for his rescue efforts.

After the verdict, Huntrod's mother, Brenda Gooch, said: "In our opinion the coroner's verdict today does not do Anthony's death justice. We believe the disregard which the MoD and its employers had shown towards the safety of our son can only be justified as unlawful killing."

Commodore Jake Moores expressed his sympathy on behalf of the navy to the families. He said safer Scogs had been brought into use on all submarines. "All of us are committed to doing everything we can to avoid such a tragic incident happening again," he added.