One of Britain's nuclear submarines was saved from being crushed underwater in the Atlantic Ocean after an equipment malfunction, reports claim.
The Royal Navy can boast of having four Vanguard class nuclear submarines in its fleet, and these are each armed with 48 Trident 2 D5 nuclear warheads.
Each submarine has space to carry 192 nuclear missiles but they're limited to 48 by the rules, and it's these submarines which make up the UK's nuclear deterrent.
All in all, it would be something of a disaster if one of these nuclear submarines were to be destroyed in a freak accident.
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Anyhow, The Sun claims that's almost what happened as they say their sources have told them that one of these submarines came within moments of catastrophe.
According to claims from their sources the vessel's depth gauge had stopped working properly, leaving the submarine's crew thinking they were level as they were diving.
Fortunately, disaster was averted when engineers at the back of the sub spotted a working depth gauge and raised the alarm that something was wrong.
Apparently, this happened just in the nick of time too, as the submarine was entering the 'danger zone' where it goes beyond the depth its hull can withstand.
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"It’s not the engineers’ job to control the sub’s depth but they saw how deep they were and realised something was wrong," The Sun's source supposedly told them.
"Technically the sub was still at a depth where we know it can operate, but if it ever has to go that deep the whole crew is piped to action-stations.
"That hadn’t happened. The sub wasn’t supposed to be there, and it was still diving. And if it had carried on going, it doesn’t really bear thinking about."
Since the Vanguard class submarines can carry a crew of up to 150 people that would have been quite the disaster had the vessel sunk to depths its hull couldn't handle.
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A Royal Navy spokesperson told The Sun: "Our submarines continue to meet their commitments, deploying globally on operations, protecting national interests, and keeping us and our allies safe.
"While we do not comment on specific details regarding submarine operations, safety of our personnel is always the highest priority."
Being on board a submarine seems like quite the dangerous duty, as recently a Chinese sub was thought to have become caught in one of its own traps laid for UK and US vessels with the loss of 55 crew members.
LADbible have contacted the Ministry of Defence for further comment.
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock PhotoTopics: UK News