Argentine Navy: Sound heard in submarine search likely an ‘explosion’

Relatives of missing submarine crew members  react to the news that a sound detected during the search for the ARA San Juan submarine is consistent with that of an explosion, at the Mar de Plata Naval Base, in Argentina on Thursday, November 23, 2017. A Navy spokesman said that the relatives of the crew have been informed and that the search will continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the submarine. He said there was no sign the explosion might be linked to any attack on the sub. (AP)

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina – An apparent explosion occurred near the time and place an Argentine submarine went missing, the country’s navy reported on Thursday, prompting relatives of its 44 crew members to burst into tears and lose hope on a rescue.

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said the search would continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan, despite the evidence of an explosion and with more than a week having passed since the submarine disappeared.

The submarine was originally scheduled to arrive last Monday at Argentina’s Mar del Plata Navy Base.

The United States Navy and an international nuclear test-ban monitoring organization said a “hydro-acoustic anomaly” was produced just hours after the navy lost contact with the submarine on November 15.

“According to this report, there was an explosion,” Balbi told reporters. “We don’t know what caused an explosion of these characteristics at this site on this date.”

The navy spokesman described the event as “singular, short, violent and non-nuclear.” It was detected near the area where the ARA San Juan went missing.

Relatives of the crew, who have gathered at the base to receive psychological counseling, broke into tears and hugged each other after they received the news. Some fell on their knees or clung to a fence crowded with blue-and-white Argentine flags, rosary beads, and messages of support. Most declined to speak, while a few others lashed out in anger at the navy’s response.

“They sent a piece of crap to sail,” said Itati Leguizamon, wife of submarine crew member German Suarez. “They inaugurated a submarine with a coat of paint and a flag in 2014, but without any equipment inside. The navy is to blame for its 15 years of abandonment.”

The German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine was commissioned in 1985, and was most recently renovated in 2014.

During the $12 million retrofitting, the vessel was cut in half and had its engines and batteries replaced. Experts said that refit can be difficult because they involve integrating systems produced by different manufacturers and even the smallest mistake during the cutting phase of the operation can put the safety of the ship and the crew at risk.

The Argentine navy and outside experts have said that even if the ARA San Juan is intact, its crew might have only enough oxygen to be submerged seven to 10 days.

Authorities said late on Wednesday that Argentine navy ships as well a US P-8 Poseidon aircraft and a Brazilian air force plane would return to the area to check out the abnormal sound, which originated about 30 miles north of the submarine’s last registered position.

The search location straddles the edge of the continental shelf, with widely varying ocean depths, some as great as 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). Experts said the submarine could not have supported pressures that far down.

“If a submarine goes below its crush-depth, it would implode, it would just collapse,” said James H. Patton Jr. a retired Navy captain. “It would sound like a very, very big explosion to any listening device.”

Whatever it was, US Navy Lt. Lily Hinz said the sound detected “was not a whale, and it is not a regularly occurring sound.”

Claudio Rodriguez, brother of crew member Hernan Rodriguez, said his family suspects “the explosion was so strong that they were not able to rise to the surface or shoot any flares. They didn’t have time for anything.”

“As a family, we’re grateful to all the people who prayed for us and for the families of all the 44,” he said.

The ARA San Juan lost contact as it was sailing from the extreme southern port of Ushuaia. The submarine’s captain had reported a battery failure.

More than a dozen airplanes and ships have been participating in the multinational search despite stormy weather that has caused waves of more than 20 feet (6 meters).

Search teams are combing an area of some 185,000 square miles (480,000 square kilometers), which is roughly the size of Spain.

The US government has sent two P-8 Poseidons, a naval research ship, a submarine rescue chamber and sonar-equipped underwater vehicles.  US Navy sailors from the San Diego-based Undersea Rescue Command were also helping with the search.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense sent a special airplane with emergency life support pods to join the hunt that includes planes and ships from a dozen nations.

Hopes were buoyed after brief satellite calls were received and when sounds were detected deep in the South Atlantic. But experts later determined that neither was from the missing sub.

“They haven’t come back and they will never come back,” said Jesica Gopar, wife of submarine officer Fernando Santilli, choking back tears. “I had a bad feeling about this and now it has been confirmed.”                        /kga