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Jakarta (AP) - In Indonesia there is great concern about the crew of a missing submarine.
The KRI Nanggala-402, built 40 years ago in Germany, is believed to have sunk north of Bali, the news portal “Kompas” quoted military spokesman Hadi Tjahjanto on Wednesday.
There were 53 people on board, as reported by the head of the marine information service, Julius Widjojono.
Other countries in the region offered help with the search.
The contact was broken at around 3 a.m. (local time) during an exercise, then the almost 60-meter-long submarine disappeared about 95 kilometers from the island of Bali.
It is possible that it is in a trough on the sea floor at a depth of about 700 meters, it said.
The Ministry of Defense in Jakarta announced that helicopters had discovered an oil stain in the sea - around the point where there was last contact with the submarine.
"The search with two ships equipped with side-sight sonar continues," it said.
Singapore and Australia have reportedly been asked for help with the search because they owned submarine rescue vessels.
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According to the Antara News news agency, the KRI Nanggala-402 with a diesel-electric motor was ordered from Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel in 1977 and put into operation in 1981. Other media had previously named 1979 as the year of commissioning. A major overhaul was completed in South Korea in 2012.
Rescuing from great depths is extremely difficult.
In November 2017, the Argentine submarine “ARA San Juan” with 44 sailors on board disappeared on its way from Ushuaia in the extreme south of Argentina to Mar del Plata.
There had previously been technical problems on board.
A search team from the private company Ocean Infinity only located the sunken submarine a year later at a depth of more than 900 meters off the Patagonian coast.
The government ruled out salvage of the ship at the time.
Argentina does not have the necessary technical capabilities, it was said to justify.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210421-99-296590 / 2
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Kompas report
CNN Indonesia report