The Investigative Committee intends to conduct a survey of the fishing vessel "Onega", which sank in the Barents Sea, using remotely controlled underwater vehicles.

This was reported to RT in the North-West Transport Investigation Department of the TFR, which is investigating the case of the trawler crash, which killed 17 people.

According to representatives of the department, the relevant applications have already been sent to the Marine Rescue Service and the Ministry of Transport, which should resolve the issue of financing the operation.

“In June, representatives of the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Transport met at a meeting to discuss the issue of financing underwater research.

So far, we have not received a specific answer from the Ministry of Transport, ”the press service of the Investigative Department said.

Nevertheless, investigators expect that in the next two months the issue will still be resolved and the authorities will allocate funds to inspect the ship at the site of its wreck.

Onega's research is necessary for the investigation to be able to establish the causes of the tragedy.

"The investigation is not considering the option that the model of the vessel will be restored using computer technology: technically, the trawler has been altered, and it is virtually impossible to restore it with accuracy," the Investigation Department added.

Testimony of witnesses

The fishing vessel "Onega" sank in the early morning of December 28.

As follows from the Gosmorrechnadzor report, that day the wave height reached three meters.

The crew pulled out gear with fish when the vessel heeled to starboard, but did not return to its original position.

Water poured onto the deck of the fishing shop, and then into the room where the cabins were located. 

“Within a short period of time, the vessel sank and the people were in the water,” the report says. 

When the captain gave the command to leave the ship, only two of the 19 crew members were in wetsuits.

They were later picked up by the sailors of another fishing vessel, which received a distress signal and approached the sinking site of the Onega.

The remaining 17 people are still missing.

After the tragedy, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under Article 263, Part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Violation of the safety rules for the operation of transport, resulting in the death of two or more persons." 

Elena Shevtsova had a 26-year-old son, Yuri, on board the sunken ship.

“The only thing that gives us meaning to live is the hope of getting punishment for what happened.

All the relatives of the victims want to know what caused the sinking of the ship, ”says Elena. 

  • Yuri Shevtsov

  • © Photo author unknown (

However, so far, according to Elena, there are no accused in this case.

Also, the forensic navigational and technical expertise has not yet been done, because it is impossible to carry out them without inspecting the vessel. 

“Everyone knows that the ship was out of order, but according to the documents, it was as if it just came off the assembly line!

Last year, from August to the end of October, the ship was under repair because it was technically out of order.

I talked with the sailors who went on this ship before, they said that the trawler had already had serious design changes.

These people were then questioned as witnesses within the framework of the investigation, ”says Elena.

“Before the last voyage, the boatswain and several sailors got off the ship because of its poor technical condition,” says Lyudmila Timerbaeva, who also lost her son in this tragedy.

“That is why my son got to Onega at the last moment: he was offered to earn some money, and he replaced one of those who signed off ashore.”

The interlocutor provided RT with a video from the board of Onega, filmed by one of the sailors on the last voyage.

The video, she said, shows that there is no watertight door on the ship between the fish shop and the deck.

Therefore, according to the woman, the vessel sank to the bottom in a matter of minutes.

“When a wave hit the deck, it immediately hit the living quarters, there was a faster flooding.

If the ship had watertight doors, it would probably stay afloat not for three minutes, but for 20 minutes, and people would have time to escape, put on wetsuits, ”said the mother of the deceased sailor.

The woman says that this video was also transmitted to the UK as evidence that safety rules were violated on the ship.

  • Sailor Vladimir Timerbaev on his last voyage on board the Onega ship.

25 million for inspection

Now in the case of the Onega crash, 17 people - relatives of the victims - have been recognized as victims.

They wrote appeals to the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, the government, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Transport and the General Prosecutor's Office with a request to organize the rise of Onega. 

However, according to experts, it is virtually impossible to lift the vessel.

Just inspecting the trawler at the bottom will cost at least 25 million rubles. 

"Due to the great depth, divers will not be able to descend to Onega, the vessel can only be investigated with the help of remotely controlled unmanned underwater vehicles (ROV)," Andrei Malov, assistant to the head of media relations of the Marine Rescue Service, explains to RT.

According to him, a specialized vessel is needed to deliver the vehicles to the crash site, but at the moment it is engaged in another project in the Baltic Sea.

“The special ship, which transports TNLA, consumes about 20 tons of diesel fuel per day, that is, one day of its operation costs about a million rubles.

The arrival of the vessel from the Baltic to Murmansk will take about 10 days, for another three days the vessel will sail to the area of ​​the Onega wreck.

It is unclear how long it will take to find the vessel itself at the bottom, - explained in the Marine Rescue Service.

"We only know the approximate area where the ship sank, and that now it lies at a depth of about 130 meters."

As for the raising of the vessel, it will be possible to talk about it only after its inspection, according to the Marine Rescue Service.

At the same time, the department is already confidently declaring that it is almost unrealistic to lift Onega from a depth of 130 meters - in the history of civil ship lifting, ships have not been raised from such a depth. 

Relatives of the fishermen still hope that the remains of one of the dead can be lifted from the bottom.

In the meantime, families do not have a place where they can come to honor the memory of their lost husbands, brothers and sons.

Now Lyudmila Timerbaeva, together with other families, is seeking to install a plate in Murmansk with the names of the sailors who died on "Onega".

Now they are recorded only in the book, which is kept in the museum on the territory of the memorial "To the sailors who died in peacetime".

“At first, the city administration offered us to erect a monument without specifying names.

But after we discussed the problem with representatives of the administration, there was hope that a plaque with the names of our relatives would be placed on the territory of the memorial, ”says Timerbaeva.

“We want people to remember this tragedy, so that senior command personnel, captains, shipowners know that they are responsible for their crews, so that such mistakes will not be repeated”.

On June 26, their families will go to the Kola Bay to throw wreaths into the water in memory of the fishermen.

June 28 will mark exactly six months from the day of the tragedy - then 17 missing fishermen will be officially declared dead.