They find Argentine Submarine Disappeared a Year Ago
A total of 44 crew members were on the submarine that was not located since November 15, 2017 in the Atlantic Ocean
It is located underwater Argentina that disappeared since November 15, 2017 in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The relatives of the 44 crew members of the submarine San Juan, of the Argentine Navy disappeared a year ago in the South Atlantic, are waiting this Saturday in the middle of the commotion to know if the authorities will try to rescue the device, which imploded. Reclused between a military base and a hotel in Mar del Plata (400 km south of Buenos Aires), family members, very affected by the confirmation of the sailors’ death, were able to see three photos of the submarine that were taken by a robot of the search vessel of the American company Ocean Infinity.
“The submarine suffered an implosion, it is seen complete, but obviously imploded,” said Gabriel Attis, head of the Mar del Plata naval base, after meeting with a group of relatives to whom he showed three photos of the submarine.
The ARA San Juan was located on Friday more than 800 meters deep in a hollow in the South Atlantic, Attis said. It is unknown if the authorities will decide to rescue the apparatus from the bottom of the sea. Before publicly announcing the finding, authorities had warned family members of the crew that they had died on board.
The Relatives said “Now we want to know what happened, there were failures, sure, justice has to investigate, if there are guilty, that they are punished, there are 44 children, when they got on that submarine and they were alive”. A small group of relatives took to the streets at dawn to protest, showing the Argentine flags on which they have written 44, alluding to the crew of San Juan. In the midst of the crying, the protesters claimed that, according to them, they had hidden information throughout this year of search.
Most of the family members of the crew, including a woman, have been waiting for news for a year in Mar del Plata. The last contact with the submarine ARA San Juan occurred on November 15, 2017, when it sailed in the Gulf of San Jorge 450 km from the coast. He had sailed from Ushuaia, at the southern end of Argentina, back to Mar del Plata.
Before losing contact, the captain of the ship had reported the overcoming of a fault in the battery system, by the entry of water by the snorkel. The search for the device began 48 hours after that last contact. 13 countries collaborated but the majority withdrew before the end of 2017, with no results.
The ship of the US Ocean Infinity had sailed on September 7 with four family members on board and was about to cease the search when this finding occurred. The ship of Ocean Infinity decided to make a new search and thank God located the area where the submarine is sunk, said Navy spokesman Rodolfo Ramallo to TN television.
“The next stage will be to see if it can be taken or not, it is not impossible, but it is a very complex and very expensive operation, it seems that the submarine is almost whole,” a Navy officer told AFP. of his name.
Last Thursday, an act was organized in tribute to the crew of the submarine San Juan in Mar del Plata, on the occasion of the anniversary of his disappearance, attended by President Mauricio Macri and also several relatives of the sailors. The search tasks already cost 920 million pesos (25.5 million dollars).
The Argentine government committed to Ocean Infinity to reward it with 7 million dollars if it found the submarine. The tragedy motivated the dismissal of the head of the Navy, Marcelo Srur. Launched in Germany in 1983 and incorporated into the Argentine Navy in 1985, the “ARA San Juan” was one of the three submarines in the country and its half-life repair process was completed in 2014.
