Indonesia announces finding the missing submarine

The Indonesian army announced today, Saturday, the discovery of its submarine, which lost contact with it off the coast of Bali last Wednesday, at a depth of 850 meters.

The army confirmed that the authorities were preparing to carry out evacuations of potential survivors inside the submarine, despite judicious estimates that the oxygen reserves in it expired at dawn today, Saturday.

Rescue planes and ships roamed the sea north of Bali on Friday, as the search for a missing Indonesian submarine with 53 crew members on board reached a difficult stage due to the near-exhaustion of oxygen supplies.

More naval ships left Indonesia’s Banyuwangi base early Friday, heading to the Bali Sea, where contact with the submarine KRI Nangala-402 was cut off on Wednesday during a training exercise.

According to the Ministry of Defense, the submarine, which weighs 1395 tons, was built in Germany in 1977 and joined the Indonesian fleet in 1981. It underwent two years of maintenance that ended in 2012 in South Korea.

Officials said an aerial search resulted in the discovery of an oil slick near the submarine’s original site.

The Navy said the oil slick could indicate that the submarine has suffered damage or it could be a signal from the crew.

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