Argentine sub wreck finally found

The crushed wreckage of an Argentine submarine has been located one year after it vanished into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean with 44 crew members, in the country’s worst naval disaster in decades.

There has been “positive identification of the ARA San Juan”, at a depth of more than 800m, the navy tweeted, confirming that the vessel had imploded.

Experts say raising the submarine would be an enormous undertaking costing $1bn (R14bn) or more.

Defence Minister Oscar Aguad said Argentina had “no means” to do so.

Relatives of the dead sailors were seen hugging each other and crying inconsolably.

The Seabed Constructor, a ship owned by US search firm Ocean Infinity, made the discovery on Friday, one day after the first anniversary of the disappearance of the San Juan.

The ship had set out in September in the latest attempt to find the San Juan, the disappearance of which cost the navy’s top officer his job.

The navy lost contact with the submarine on November 15 2017, about 450km from the coast while it was travelling northward from Ushuaia, at Argentina’s southern tip.

“I still had hopes they could be alive,” Luis Niz, the father of a missing sailor, said, even though President Mauricio Macri’s government had declared two weeks after the sub’s disappearance that there was no possibility of survivors.

The discovery came just before the Seabed Constructor was to leave for maintenance in SA. Before setting off, the searchers decided to check an area which bad weather had previously prevented them from examining.