The seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity announced that it has located the missing Argentine Navy submarine ‘ARA San Juan’, exactly one year after it disappeared in the Atlantic ocean, along with its 44 crew.
The submarine’s last known position was received on 15 November 2017 off Argentina’s coast, while on its journey from Ushuaia in the country’s south to Mar del Plata. The Argentine navy said in the following days that an explosion was detected near the area that the submarine went missing.
Shortly after, it was announced that the captain had reported water ingress in the snorkel of the submarine, resulting in a battery short-circuit. However, after the contact with the submarine was lost, a noise was detected, which was possibly the San Juan’s implosion, according to Navy estimations. Two weeks after the submarine went missing, the Navy ceased the search and rescue oting that there were no chances of survival for the 44 crew members. Among those perished was Eliana Maria Krawczyk, Argentina’s first female submarine officer.
In the early hours of 17 November 2018, after two months of seabed search, Ocean Infinity located the wreckage of the ARA San Juan, in a ravine in 920m of water, approximately 600 km east of Comodoro Rivadavia in the Atlantic Ocean.
Our thoughts are with the many families affected by this terrible tragedy. We sincerely hope that locating the resting place of the ARA San Juan will be of some comfort to them at what must be a profoundly difficult time. Furthermore, we hope our work will lead to their questions being answered and lessons learned which help to prevent anything similar from happening again,
…Oliver Plunkett, Ocean Infinity’s CEO, said.
Ocean Infinity used five Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to carry out the search, which was conducted by a team of approximately 60 crew members onboard Seabed Constructor. In addition, three officers of the Argentine Navy and four family members of the crew of the ARA San Juan joined Seabed Constructor to observe the search operation.
The company had committed to conduct the search operation for up to sixty days, and to take on the economic risk of the search, only receiving payment if the submarine was found.
Mr. Plunkett thanked all the parties that helped to the complex operation, including the Argentinian Navy, the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, via the UK Ambassador in Buenos Aires, the US Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving, and the whole Ocean Infinity team.
In a press conference Saturday, Argentina’s Defense Minister, Oscar Aguad, said that the country does not have the capability of recovering the sunken submarine, CNN reported.
