Lost submarine found off coast of Argentina
San Juan disappeared in rough weather last year with 44 sailors aboard
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA— In the year since 44 Argentine sailors vanished aboard a submarine, some relatives of the missing crew members had refused to speak of their loved ones in the past tense as they held out hope for a miracle — or at least clarity as to what befell them.
This weekend, Argentine officials said the wreckage of the submarine had been found, offering the first concrete answers about one of the deadliest and most confounding maritime disasters in modern times. Hours after announcing the discovery the government said Saturday that it is unable to recover the vessel. Defence Minister Oscar Aguad said at a press conference that the country lacks “modern technology” capable of “verifying the seabed” to ex- tract the ARA San Juan.
“If we had a speck of hope, now there is none left,” said Gisela Polo, the sister of Esteban Alejandro Polo, 32, one of the sailors who died. “We’ve seen the images. They described the depth where it was found. It makes no sense to keep talking about him as if he were still alive.”
The discovery of the submarine — almost a year to the day after it disappeared in stormy weather — revealed that it imploded close to the ocean floor, officials said on Saturday, but that its main hull appeared to be largely intact. Now the government of President Mauricio Macri will have to answer questions from frustrated families about what more can be gleaned from the wreckage.
The disappearance of the submarine had confounded ex- perts and had drawn attention to the dilapidated state of Argentina’s armed forces. Relatives of the missing sailors denounced the military as reckless.
“This is news that fills us with enormous pain,” Macri said in a recorded message Saturday night in which he announced three days of national mourning. “Now we’re opening a period of serious investigations to find out the whole truth.”
Ocean Infinity, a Houstonbased ocean-mapping company hired a few months ago, found the submarine nearly 270 nautical miles from the port of Comodoro Rivadavia in Chubut province, Argentina, and about 1,000 metres under water. The company used unmanned, robotic devices to find it.
Navy officials said Saturday that the relatively small area in which debris from the vessel was scattered and dents on its hull suggested an implosion caused by high pressure from the depth of the ocean.
The submarine was found in an area that was searched extensively but that is filled with canyons, making finding it difficult.
“This is the area where we had assigned 90 per cent of probability for it to be located,” said Vice Adm. José Luis Villán, the head of the Argentine navy. He added that Ocean Infinity brought to bear unique capabilities. “All the navies looked in this area but absent the technology that this company had, we had not found it,” Villán said.
Some relatives said the news, while painful, brought a measure of closure.
“I had already assumed he died,” said María Itatí Leguizamón, the wife of Germán Oscar Suárez, a radar operator on the vessel. “But I couldn’t help it. There was a part of me that kept holding on to the hope that he could still be alive. But now I know for sure and I can mourn.
“It’s strange how I feel such a mixture of happiness that they found it but also immense sadness. I just can’t describe it,” she said.