Divers worked slowly in rough seas to clear precut holes through which lifting cables will be run, said Capt.
"Everything depends on the weather," said Jan van Seumeren, technical director of Mammoet, whose task in the next three weeks is to cut off the mostly destroyed front section of the submarine, then attach 26 bundles of lifting cables from as many hydraulic jacks to raise the Kursk and tow it to a naval drydock near Murmansk.
A spar, attached to lifting cables and struts in the wings, is to be inserted through the bomber's fuselage, which lies in 50ft of water off Kent.
Instead, divers are to insert a spar along the inside of the fuselage and attach lifting cables to that and to a pair of struts, part of the original airframe, running the length of both wings.
Lift cables 1 and 2 up to remove the connectors.
A deeper Alvin could maintain such devices, eliminating the need for lifting the cable, which is a risky job.
Injuries are more likely if a deropement occurs at a support tower lifting a cable over a ridge, the safety foundation's Penniman said.
Enter the UltraRope, a new kind of lift cable developed by Finnish elevator company Kone.
Only when the camera pans outwards and beyond do we see (as the occupants of the lift cannot) that the lift cable has been cut and the lift is plummeting down the lift shaft.
Somehow the Pentagon failed to keep its maps and its databases up to date (which was apparently why an American marine pilot last year sliced through a ski-lift cable in the Italian Alps, killing 20 people).
Tension springs are adjusted by repositioning the S-hook at the end of the braided-lift cable (one-piece doors have the S-hook and bracket but not the cable).
