OF THE
TIMES
Seven failed satellite calls were detected on Saturday that Argentina's defence ministry believes could be from submarine that went missing in the south Atlantic three days ago with 44 crew on board.Update (Nov. 20): The international search for the missing Argentinian submarine with 44 crew on board is continuing after a naval commander confirmed the vessel did surface to report an electrical malfunction.
The attempts - which lasted between four and 36 seconds - "indicate that the crew is trying to re-establish contact" after communications were lost on Wednesday said the navy. The defence ministry said it was working on tracing the location of the calls with an unnamed US company that specialised in satellite communications.
It was not immediately clear what type of calls the ARA San Juan submarine might have tried to make but submarines that are stricken underwater can float a location beacon known as an emergency position indicator radio beacon (EPIRB) to the surface that can then emit emergency signals via satellite.
...
Offers for aid have been received also from South Africa and Brazil, as well as other South American nations.
Argentina's foreign minister, Jorge Faurie, tweeted. "I am deeply grateful to all the friendly nations who are collaborating in the humanitarian search we Argentinians are undertaking."
Argentina's president, Mauricio Macri, has moved to the coastal city of Chapadmalal, near Mar del Plata, because of the situation.
The military sub surfaced Wednesday to report an electrical issue and was ordered to go back to its base, according to naval commander Gabriel Galeazzi. "The submarine surfaced and reported a malfunction, which is why its ground command ordered it to return to its naval base at Mar del Plata," Galeazzi told reporters on Monday.Update (Nov. 23): A "hydro-acoustic anomaly" was detected near where the Argentinian submarine ARA San Juan went missing, three hours after it sent its last communications a week ago, the navy revealed yesterday.
The alarm was raised by the Argentinian navy on Friday after the vessel failed to make contact for 48 hours. The crew was returning from a routine mission to Ushuaia, near the most southern tip of South America, when the German-built diesel-electric submarine lost contact.
Rescuers hoped that satellite calls detected over the weekend were from the missing crew, however a navy spokesman confirmed on Monday that the calls did not come from the vessel.
International air and sea search missions by Brazil, Britain, Chile and the US were hindered by bad weather conditions. Waves were up to six meters when the sub went missing, but rescuers are honing in on a 300km radius surrounding the last point of contact with the vessel.
While it's still unclear exactly what happened, a navy spokesperson said an electrical problem may have suddenly cut off the vessel's communications. One possible scenario is that the submarine's communications malfunctioned, but its navigation remains intact. However, such a theory has lost steam after the crew failed to dock as planned Sunday.
The anomaly occurred at 30 nautical miles north of the last position from where the submarine had communicated with the navy, spokesman Enrique Balbi said..
A US institute detected the anomaly, but only informed Argentina about it now.
Balbi had earlier said it was unlikely the submarine exploded, because an explosion of that magnitude in the sea would not have gone undetected.
The spokesman said three navy vessels were on their way to the area to check whether the submarine was there.
Hopes of rescuing the vessel's 44 crew before its week's supply of oxygen runs out have been repeatedly raised and dashed by false alarms triggered by undersea noises, a lifeboat and flare rockets, all initially thought to have come from the submarine.
"It's a noise. We don't want to speculate" about what caused it, Balbi said of the anomaly.
Family members of the crew meanwhile criticised the rescue effort. "We are really amazed that they are not finding it, it is impossible at this stage that they don't know where it is," Claudio Rodriguez, brother of one of the crew members, said.
"How can you lose a 60-metres long navy vessel, even if it is under water?" Rodriguez told radio Cielo
As baffling as the sub's disappearance is, its apparent failure to use any of a number of distress signals or mechanisms at its disposal is troubling. For starters, the boat's commanders could have released an emergency buoy that would have positioned the sub for searchers with radio SOS signals.
The San Juan also is equipped with an ejectable cylinder that releases green fluid a half mile in diameter once it reaches the surface. Moreover, the vessel has large life rafts that can be released if an abandonment is expected.
Officials have theorized that either searchers have yet to come across any of these distress signals or that the submarine was quickly and devastatingly incapacitated by a cataclysmic event onboard.
R.C.