Submarine lost with 53 mariners aboard
BALI: Indonesia deployed warships on Thursday in the hunt for a navy submarine that went missing with 53 crew off the coast of Bali, as other nations sent vessels to help with the search.
An oil spill where the vessel was thought to have submerged early on Wednesday during regular exercises could point to damage, the navy has said, fanning fears the Southeast Asian nation may be the latest to suffer a fatal submarine disaster.
The German-built KRI Nanggala 402 was scheduled to conduct live torpedo exercises
when it asked for permission to dive. It lost contact shortly after.
Navy spokesman Julius Widjojono said on Thursday that search teams were focused on an area around the oil slick, but that the vessel had yet to be pinpointed.
“It has not been found yet,” Mr Widjojono said. “But we’ve detected the area ... Today, around 400 personnel have been deployed.”
Six warships and a helicopter have been sent out to look for the sub, the navy said.
Other nations including the US, Australia, France and
Germany, have offered help. Neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia have already dispatched rescue ships that are expected to arrive in the coming days, said military spokesman Achmad Riad.
There were 53 crew aboard the vessel, which was believed to be in waters about 700m deep.
French navy vice admiral Antoine Beaussant said the submarine was not built to withstand such a depth.
“If it went down to rest at 700m the likelihood is it would have broken up,” he said.
Indonesia, which has been moving to upgrade its ageing military equipment in recent years, has five German and South Korean-built submarines in its fleet.
The 1,300-tonne KRI Nanggala 402 was first delivered for service in 1981. It is a Type 209 diesel-electric attack submarine that has served in more than a dozen navies around the world, including Greece, India, Argentina and Turkey, over the past half century.
While Indonesia has not previously suffered a major submarine disaster, other
countries have been struck by accidents in the past.
Among them was the 2000 sinking of the Kursk, the pride of Russia’s Northern Fleet.
That submarine was on manoeuvres in the Barents Sea when it sank with the loss of all 118 aboard. An inquiry found a torpedo had exploded, detonating all the others.
Most of its crew died instantly but some survived for several days — with a few keeping heartbreaking diaries written in blood to their loved ones — before suffocating.