Argentinian Submarine Lost? News?

[Bubblesong]

I read this on the news that the Argentinian Navy lost a submarine, are there any Argentinians that know more about this?

 

[Bob DBF]

Argentinian Navy submarine ARA San Juan has not been in communication for a little ove two days, and a search is being made to find her. Depending on the report there are 40 or 44 people on board.

At this point it could be a communications problem, with the boat continuing on their mission, or a casualty that left them without communications or possibly power. I'm hoping for a positive resolution.


Bob

 

[Russjstewart]

Argentinian submarine missing with 44 crew on board


Not much more in the papers than what Bob said

 

[Bob DBF]

ABC News a few minutes ago.

The Argentine Navy confirmed today that it has lost communication with one of its submarines.

According to the Navy, the submarine's last-known position in the area of operations was near the San Jorge Gulf, about 240 nautical miles from the country's southern shore. Communications were reportedly knocked out Wednesday because of a fire, local media said.

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No SOS warning was received at any time, the Navy said. A spokesperson hypothesized that it would be logical that a major electrical problem could have knocked out the submarine's communications.

The missing watercraft -- the ARA San Juan -- is a German-built TR 1700 class diesel-electric submarine, the Navy said. It was on a routine trip from a base in Ushia, on the southern tip of the continent, to its home base of Mar del Plata.

The ARA San Juan debuted in 1983 and hadn't experienced any problems until two years ago, when it was sent to port to be repaired, the Navy said. The nature of those repairs is unclear.

"We have a loss of communications. We are not talking of an emergency," said Adm. Gabriel Gonzalez, according to The Associated Press.

Argentine Navy Handout/EPA
An undated handout photo of the ARA San Juan submarine, made available by the Argentine Navy, Nov. 17, 2017.more +


The Navy said that four naval ships and three planes were searching for the missing submarine, as well as land-based communications stations, which are listening to all possible frequencies of transmission in case the vessel is trying to send a message.

One of the planes being used is an American NASA plane, which is equipped with instruments that searchers hope will aid in the search. The Navy has also asked that local merchant and fishing ships also keep a lookout for the submarine.

Only 15 percent of the logical search area had been surveyed by Friday afternoon, and the search area has now been widened, the Navy said.

After the search began during mild weather, visuals were later hampered due to worsening weather, according to officials.

The Submarine Force Command has been in touch with the relatives of the 44 on board to keep them informed of developments.

According to the Navy, a Turbo Tracker aircraft and a B-200 aircraft had made flights Thursday and this morning.

Both the naval destroyer ARA Sarandi with a helicopter on board and the corvette ARA Rosales had also been sent to the area. Additionally, the Navy said the ARA corvette Drummond was expected to arrive and get in position today around 6 p.m. local time.

Steve Ganyard, an ABC News contributor and a former deputy assistant secretary of state, said the San Juan was almost 35 years old but had undergone a "midlife upgrade" in 2013. The submarine is one of only three in the Argentine Navy.

David Fernandez/EPA
An officer of the Argentine Navy leaves its headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nov. 17, 2017.


The U.S. Southern Command said it was monitoring the situation closely.

"We are coordinating closely with the U.S. State Department and our chain of command to be ready to assist, if asked. As of this email, U.S. Southern Command does not have a role in the ongoing search and rescue effort. We join the international community in hoping for an outcome involving no loss of life or injuries to personnel," U.S. Southern Command said.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry said that the governments of Chile, U.S. and U.K. had offered logistical support and information in the search for the missing submarine. The U.S. also deployed a plane to the massive search site in a rescue operation.

"The fact is that, if you don't know where the submarine is, when it's in distress, you can have all the rescue gear in the world and it's not going to make a difference," Ganyard said.

A fire is a real serious on a sub, usually because it involves the batteries and starts with an explosion. The US diesel boats suffered many over the years, but it can leave the boat on the surface without any electricity available for anything that survived the fire.

The search is on, it's a big area to look in, and the submarine is small and made to blend into its surroundings.

Wishing well for my submarine brothers.


Bob DBF

 

[scubafanatic]

So a military sub wouldn't even have a simple EPIRB/PLB dohicky available ? No independent communication back up ?

 

[Bubblesong]

So a military sub wouldn't even have a simple EPIRB/PLB dohicky available ? No independent communication back up ?

They may have it but could not get to surface to use it.

 

[Bob DBF]

So a military sub wouldn't even have a simple EPIRB/PLB dohicky available ? No independent communication back up ?

They may have it but could not get to surface to use it.

Or, if there was a battery fire, it could be damaged, there is complete redundant gear on a sub, but it is all inside the boat. EPIRB/PBL, or its military equivalent, is more of a lifeboat piece of gear, and subs don't have lifeboats, at least when I served.

At this point I believe they had a massive casualty, if not they would be back in communication. I keep going back to a battery fire, as flooding is harder to survive, although flooding in the electronics spaces could leave them without communications.

Latest from CNN

Officials hope the crew would bring the sub to the surface, if possible, Balbi said.
"The submarine knows that if it does not have communication with land for this long, it has to surface," Balbi said.
News of the search struck a chord in the Vatican. Pope Francis, an Argentina native and a former archbishop of Buenos Aires, offered his "fervent prayers for the 44 officers aboard the ARA San Juan" in a message released on his behalf Saturday by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state.
Francis encouraged efforts to find the vessel and "asks that his closeness be conveyed to their families and to the military and civil authorities of the country in these difficult moments," the message reads.
Search efforts
The Argentine navy said it ordered "all terrestrial communication stations along the Argentine coast to carry out a preliminary and extended search of communications and to listen into all the possible frequencies of the submarine."
The US Navy said it was helping. It planned to deploy a P8-A Poseidon maritime aircraft to Argentina on Saturday, the US Naval Forces Southern Command said in a statement.
The 21-person US crew had been in El Salvador supporting "counter-illicit trafficking patrol operations," the agency said in a statement. The aircraft also had assisted in a search for a South Korean ship that sank in April in the South Atlantic, and more recently, it was sent to Dominica in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
NASA also will help in the search with a P-3 Orion aircraft, agency spokeswoman Katherine Brown told CNN. She said the US plane was "already in Argentina on a scientific mission."
The P-3 is a turboprop aircraft capable of long-duration flights, according to NASA.

CNN's Diane Ruggiero, Spencer Feingold and Marilia Brochetto contributed to this report.

One thing not mentioned was that the P3 aircraft was specifically configured to hunt submarines.


Unfortunately the longer the search goes on, the less likely for a good outcome, a few days will tell.


Bob DBF

 

[Bob DBF]

If there are communications attempts, it sounds like some good news.

From the LA Times

Argentine authorities say the crew of a missing submarine attempted to transmit messages several times Saturday, the first such communications from the vessel since it went missing Wednesday morning in the south Atlantic.

Defense Minister Oscar Aguad said over Twitter on Saturday night that the submarine, with a crew of 44 members, sent seven “communication attempts” earlier in the day. He did not provide further details.

The whereabouts of the vessel, the subject of an intensive search involving eight nations, remained a mystery, including whether it was at the surface or underwater.

The submarine ARA San Juan had participated in naval exercises off southern Argentina before departing Monday from the city of Ushuaia for a naval base in Mar de Plata. The last contact was made after the northbound vessel passed the Valdes Peninsula about 270 miles off Argentina’s coast.

Orion propeller-driven patrol airplane, equipped with magnetometers, infrared cameras and other sensors that can detect a submerged submarine. The aircraft, which can also measure ice thickness, is temporarily based in Ushuaia to take part in a NASA survey of Antarctica.

Argentine naval officials said they received no distress signals from the vessel, a German-built TR-1700 model, before losing contact. Vessels from Chile, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, South Africa and the United Kingdom are also assisting in the search.

Pope Francis, a native of Argentina, said in a statement issued by the Vatican earlier Saturday that he was praying for the safe return of the submarine and its crew, and for “spiritual serenity and Christian hope” for Argentina. He said he felt especially close to family members “in these difficult moments.”

Anguished family members of the crew have gathered at the Mar de Plata base awaiting news.

Bob DBF

 

[diversteve]

It's on CBSN but there's no updates outside of the original loss .

 

[Bob DBF]

Latest from CNN

(CNN)Argentina's navy on Monday picked up what could be noises from the country's missing submarine.

The sonar systems of two ships detected noises sounding like tools being banged against the hull of a submarine, according to a senior US Navy official familiar with the Navy's assistance in the search for the vessel.
The official said that crews of submarines in distress bang on the vessel's hull to alert passing ships to their location.


The Argentinian navy was able to fix the rough location of the sounds and is now concentrating its search in a 35-square-nautical-mile area, approximately 330 miles off the coast of Argentina, the official said.


Argentina's missing submarine: What we know
A US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft, also known as a submarine hunter, is now assisting in the search area. The official said that the waters of the Atlantic Ocean where the sounds originated are extremely deep. The official stressed that search efforts thus far have yet to locate the submarine.
The Argentinian military has been working with a US company that specializes in satellite communication to determine the location of the submarine.


Mixed signals as rescuers hunt missing Argentine submarine
The ARA San Juan submarine and its 44 crew members were traveling from a base in southern Argentina's Tierra del Fuego archipelago to their home port in Mar del Plata. The sub was scheduled to arrive Sunday.
It was last spotted Wednesday in the San Jorge Gulf, a few hundred kilometers off the coast of southern Argentina's Patagonia region and nearly midway between the two bases.
Southern Argentina's Patagonia coast is notorious for strong storms.
CNN's military and diplomatic analyst John Kirby reported in Washington. CNN's Joe Sterling reported and wrote in Atlanta. CNN's Natalie Gallon and Susannan Cullinane contributed to this report.

If the sounds are from the sub it is now a race between getting the exact position, rescue gear on site, and the amount of breathable air in the sub.


Bob DBF