WORLD Signals hopeful sign for lost sub

ARGENTINA’S navy detected seven brief satellite calls at the weekend that officials believe may have come from a submarine with 44 crew members that hadn’t been heard from in three days.

The communication attempts “indicate that the crew is trying to re- establish contact, so we are working to locate the source of the emissions”, the navy said on its Twitter account, adding that the calls lasted between four and 36 seconds.

Argentinian authorities clarified that it had not been able to confirm the calls came from the submarine, the ARA San Juan, although that is the working hypothesis. Earlier, navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said the area being searched off the country’s southern Atlantic coast had been doubled as concerns about the fate of the submarine and its crew grew. “We are not discounting any hypothesis,” Mr Balbi said, adding that possibilities to explain the submarine’s disappearance include “a problem with communications” or with its power system.

Authorities last had contact with the German- built, dieselelectric sub on Wednesday while it was on a voyage from the extreme southern port of Ushuaia to Mar del Plata.

Argentinian President Mauricio Macri said in a tweet the country would use “all resources national and international that are necessary to find the submarine”.

Pledges of help came from Chile, Uruguay, Peru and Brazil, as well as the United States, which sent a NASA scientific aircraft and a navy plane. The UK sent a polar exploration vessel, the HMS Protector.

The US navy ordered its Undersea Rescue Command, based in San Diego, California, to deploy to Argentina to support the search for the submarine. The command includes a remotely operated vehicle and vessels capable of rescuing people from bottomed submarines.

Admiral Gabriel Gonzalez, chief of the Mar del Plata naval base, said they were co- ordinating “with units from the United Kingdom and the United States”.

Relatives of the crew members gathered at the Mar del Plata naval base in the hopes of hearing news about their loved ones.

“We feel anguish. We are reserved, but will not lose our hope that they will return,” Marcela Moyano, wife of machinist Hernan Rodriguez, told television network TN.

From the Vatican, Pope Francis, an Argentinian, said he was making “fervent prayers” for the crew.