Argentinean submarine missing, 44 on board

An Argentinean submarine has lost contact in the South Atlantic with 44 crew on board, military authorities said, reports IANS.

The ARA San Juan was carrying out a surveillance mission in Argentina’s exclusive economic zone near Puerto Madryn, around 1,400 km south of Buenos Aires, Xinhua news agency reported.

Argentina’s naval commander for the Atlantic, Gabriel Gonzalez, told the media on Friday that radioelectrical communication was lost with the submarine “48 hours ago”.

The last communication with the craft happened on Wednesday.

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi denied that it had been found.

Answering rumours about the submarine, Balbi said that news of a fire on board was “not official information”. “There may have been a technical fault, there is no communication yet.”

Although the German-built ARA San Juan has been out of contact for two days, the navy initially did not consider it lost.

“It’s not that it’s lost, because to be lost, you have to look for it and not find it,” the navy told a local broadcaster.

However, after an initial search operation in the submarine’s last known position, around 430 kilometers (267 miles) off the south-eastern Valdez peninsula, bore no results, Argentina said it was stepping up its search efforts and calling on allies for help.

“We have not been able to find, or have visual or radar communication with the submarine,” navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters at a news conference.

“I don’t want to dramatize the issue. We’re lacking communication and don’t know what happened.”

The incident has formally been upgraded to a “search and rescue” operation, Balbi added.

A number of countries have offered their assistance in uncovering the lost submarine. Argentina has already accepted an offer from the US to use a NASA P-3 explorer aircraft, which was already stationed in the southern city of Ushuaia, preparing to depart for Antarctica. Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Britain and South Africa have also all offered assistance.

ARA San Juan was en route back to its base in the city of Mar del Plata in the Buenos Aires province when it went missing.

It had just completed a routine mission in Ushuaia, a coastal town near South America’s southernmost tip.

Three planes, four ships and one helicopter are searching the area for the missing submarine.

The ARA San Juan is a TR1700 submarine made in Germany, which joined the Argentinean navy in 1985.

ARA San Juan was en route back to its base in the city of Mar del Plata in the Buenos Aires province when it went missing. A number of countries have offered their assistance in uncovering the lost submarine