Top general downplays hole in submarine

VICTORIA — A large hole in the front of a Victoria- class submarine that ran aground in Nootka Sound last year isn’t as bad as it looks, says Canada’s top military official.

Gen. Walt Natynczyk, chief of the defence staff, says HMCS Corner Brook will be repaired and back in service once it completes its scheduled maintenance in 2016.

“It looks more serious than it is, from what I’ve been told by the navy,” Natynczyk said. “We’ll have that submarine back to full operational capability in the fullness of time.”

Questions about the future of Canada’s submarines were raised last week after the CBC obtained a photo showing the extent of the damage on the Corner Brook. The navy had never released photos of the gouge in the submarine.

“I have great confidence in our navy and especially in our submariners — in my mind, about the best in the world,” Natynczyk said. “And those submarines are at the end of a long beginning, but they are going to give Canada a very capable force.”

The Corner Brook suffered a huge gash on June 4 after it slammed into the ocean floor while conducting submerged manoeuvres during advanced officer training on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The photograph, taken at 4 a. m. when the sub was being moved from Esquimalt Harbour to dry dock for repair by Victoria Shipyards, displayed a three- by- 3.7- metre gash.

The hole is in the outer fibreglass shell, and does not affect the structural integrity of the submarine’s crucial pressure hull, according to the navy. But since the release of the photograph, allegations have been swirling around Ottawa and raised in the House of Commons that the navy perhaps under- played the extent of the damage.

A navy board of inquiry found the Corner Brook’s crash was avoidable and that an inexperienced commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Paul Sutherland, had the sub more than 450 metres from its intended position.