Fifty-five Chinese sailors are feared dead after their nuclear submarine apparently got caught in a trap intended to ensnare British sub-surface vessels in the Yellow Sea.

According to a secret UK report the seamen died following a catastrophic failure of the submarine’s oxygen systems which poisoned the crew. …

‘Our understanding is death caused by hypoxia due to a system fault on the submarine. The submarine hit a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese Navy to trap US and allied submarines.

‘This resulted in systems failures that took six hours to repair and surface the vessel. The onboard oxygen system poisoned the crew after a catastrophic failure.’

[Wouldn’t a competent captain know where such traps are located? China denies the incident, and perhaps we should reserve judgment for more corroboration. If this is true, though, it speaks to some very poor seamanship in China’s navy. — Ed]