Prayer rug and torpedo fragment found .. Indonesia announces the sinking of the missing submarine
The Indonesian navy confirmed on Saturday the sinking of the submarine missing off Bali, dashing hopes about the possibility of rescuing its 53 crew members.
The Indonesian Navy Commander said that the search team recovered the wreckage of "Cree Nangala 402", including items from inside the vehicle, whose oxygen reserves are believed to have run out.
Warships, aircraft and hundreds of military personnel are involved in the search for the ill-fated submarine.
The authorities reported that the German-made vehicle was supplied with enough oxygen for three days after the power was cut off.
This deadline expired since early Saturday.
"We changed its condition from a lost submarine to a sunken submarine," Navy Commander Udu Margono told reporters, adding that the items found could not belong to another ship.
"(The objects) could not have got off the submarine without external pressure or unless its torpedo launch pad was damaged," he said.
Navy officials displayed several objects, including a piece of torpedo missile and a vial of grease used to lubricate their binoculars.
They also found a prayer rug.
Margono said the search for the submarine and the sailors would continue, but cautioned that the depth of the water made the recovery effort "very dangerous and difficult."
"We do not know the status of the victims, as we have not found any of them," he said in response to questions about the possibility of finding survivors.
We cannot speculate. ”
"But with (discovering) these objects, you can draw conclusions," he added.
- Sudden
disappearance The submarine, one of five in the Indonesian fleet, disappeared early Wednesday during a live torpedo exercise off the tourist island.
An oil stain found at the site where the submarine is believed to have sunk indicated the possibility of damage to its fuel tank, raising fears of a deadly disaster.
There were fears that the submarine was destroyed by water pressure after it descended to a depth of 700 meters, much more than the depth it was built to withstand.
The ship was due to conduct training exercises when it requested permission to dive.
Soon he lost contact with her.
The authorities have not provided possible explanations for the submarine’s sudden disappearance, nor have they commented on questions about whether the decades-old ship was overloaded.
The military indicated that the submarine that Indonesia received in 1981 was seaworthy.
Singapore, Malaysia, the United States and Australia participated in the search operations, as about twenty ships were deployed to comb a search area within an area of about 34 square kilometers.
Australian HMAS Ballarat arrived on Saturday while a US B-8 Poseidon aircraft was taking part in the search.
Singapore's MV Swift Rescue, a vessel specializing in submarine rescue, is also involved in the search.
Disasters And
the Indonesian army reported earlier that it had discovered signs of a high magnetic object at a depth of between 50 and 100 meters, which strengthened hopes about the possibility of finding the submarine.
But Saturday's announcement means that the archipelago in Southeast Asia has joined a list of countries that have been hit by fatal submarine accidents.
It was among the worst of the 2000 Russian "Kursk" sank.
The submarine was maneuvering in the Barents Sea when it sank and all 118 people on board were killed.
An investigation found that the torpedo exploded, causing the rest to explode.
Most of its crew members died instantly, but some survived for a few days before suffocating.
In 2003, 70 Chinese naval officers and crew members were killed, apparently by suffocation, in an accident on board a Ming class submarine during a 2003 exercise.
Five years later, 20 people were killed by poison gas when the fire extinguishing system was accidentally switched on board a Russian submarine that was undergoing testing in the Sea of Japan.
And in 2018, authorities found the wreck of an Argentine submarine that had gone missing a year earlier, with 44 sailors on board.
Follow our latest local and sports news, and the latest political and economic developments via Google news
:
#Indonesia,
#Submarine,
#Sinking,
#Loss,
# Indonesian Navy