ARA San Juan SSK - TR-1700
The wreckage of the Argentine navy submarine that exploded and disappeared one year ago was located in the Atlantic Ocean on 16 November 2018, said the navy, crushing the last hopes for relatives of the 44 crew. There has been "positive identification of the ARA San Juan," at a depth of 800 metres, a statement on Twitter from the navy said. The Seabed Constructor, a vessel owned by US search firm Ocean Infinity, which set out in September 2018 on the latest attempt to find the San Juan, made the discovery.
The ship "Seabed Constructor" arrived at Area 1 / Subarea 15a and made the descent of the ROV (remotely operated vehicle) in order to investigate point of interest No. 24 reported by Ocean Infinity. As a result it was verified that it was the submarine ARA "San Juan" which is at a depth of approximately 900 meters, being its exact location very close to the hydroacoustic anomaly detected by the CTBTO (Organization of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty) , near the last known position of the submarine.
The area where it was located had been raked by all the participating navies that intervened in the search tasks, but did not have the technology used by the company Ocean Infinity. Although the visibility was reduced by virtue of the turbulence and salinity that exists in that depth, some constituent parts of the submarine could be identified so far.
A larger section, comprised of the pressure hull, is in one piece at 907 meters. This pressure hull, of special steel of 33 millimeters of thickness, is the habitable sector where are the batteries and all the systems and equipment that the submarine has, and that owns a size of between 25 to 30 meters of length by 7 of width. Also, other parts of the submarine of smaller dimensions and forms were identified, coinciding with the bow section, the stern and the sail. To the East and Northeast of the area there is an important field of debris that was found scattered on a surface of 80 x 100 meters.
The hydroacoustic anomaly reported on November 23, 2017 by the Argentine Ambassador in Vienna (Austria), where the Organization for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBTO) works, allowed the identification of an area with the center 27 km away from the last known position of the ship. In this sector, located in front of Golfo San Jorge, is the continental slope that is made up of three terraces. The upper part is the narrowest, with a steep slope. The second is formed by a lighter slope that is between 700 and 800 meters deep. This is where the submarine canyons and their tributaries (ramifications) begin to form. Finally, a stepped surface continues until reaching the lower slope, which reaches 3,000 meters deep, leading to the continental emersion (also called abyssal plains).
According to the investigations carried out by the Training and Arming Command of the Argentine Navy (Search and Rescue Authority, SAR), together with the Naval Hydrography Service under the Ministry of Defense, an area was projected where the event would have occurred that produced the wreck of the submarine ARA "San Juan". There is the starting point (head) of the canyon called "Almirante Brown".
The canyons can be graphed and understood as submarine rivers that in their head are between 60/70 meters deep and 800 meters wide. Its constitution dates back millions of years and is made up of sand, clay, silt and other agglomerates. In addition, they have small coral formations that are constituted by the presence of natural gas deposits. According to the studies carried out on the seabed, at greater depth the speed of the currents decreases. Therefore, when something is deposited there, the same currents generate "sinkholes" around it. Thus, the object will not be eroded so quickly and the accumulation of sediments will be gradual.
The international search for the 44 crew of the missing ARA San Juan submarine was officially called off by the Argentine Navy, although the search for the vessel continued in shallow waters. The announcement was made 15 days after an explosion was believed to have sent the ill-fated vessel to the depths of the Atlantic ocean off the coast of Patagonia. More than 28 ships, nine planes and 4,000 people from 18 countries were involved in the search covering 557,000 nautical miles; more, including radar monitoring.
Luis Taglapietra, whose son Damián was a 27-year-old trainee, told the TN news channel: "This is perverse and impossible to understand. They’re playing word games. What they are really saying is that they’re not going to be looking for it any more." Speaking separately to the Guardian, Taglapietra, a lawyer who has been asked to represent several of the crew’s families, said: "They lied to us from the start. We don’t know what happened and it’s impossible to tell the truth from fabrication."
"Argentina missing submarine" (El submarino desaparecido en Argentina). "Sous-marin argentin disparu" ((in French, "Argentine submarine disappeared") "Argentinisches Marine-U-Boot im Atlantik verschollen" (in German, "Argentine naval submarine lost in the Atlantic").
Relatives of the 44 crew members on board a submarine were told 24 November 2017 they “are all dead” following reports of an explosion on the day it vanished. Argentine Navy officials phoned to tell them the sailors had been killed in a blast between 600 and 3,000 feet underwater, according to families. Officially, the government had not speculated on the status of the crew and vowed to continue to search for the vessel.
An investigation by the Ministry of Defense warned about "irregularities" in the direct purchase of the batteries of the ARA San Juan, , according to the copy of those actions that came secretly to three official offices, and which LA NACION agreed to . The information coincides with an audit of the General Syndicature (Sigen), which also questioned the procedure.
The investigation, developed by defense experts between 2015 and 2016, determined that the Navy would have breached regulatory and operational standards for the repair of half-life and the replacement of batteries; that it was sought to direct the purchase of supplies to benefit certain suppliers, and that, in this process, they would have acquired supplies with overdue guarantees and committed crimes.
"The information collected is conclusive at least to support not only that these contracts did not conform to the regulated administrative procedure, but also that the military personnel in charge of them may have engaged in unlawful conduct that benefited the awarded companies, Hawker Gmbh and Ferrostaal AG ", said the defense researchers.
According to La Nación newspaper published today , an investigation carried out by defense experts between 2015 and 2016 concluded that the Navy would have breached "normative and operational standards" to carry out the repair and replacement of submersible batteries, and that in that process "We sought to direct the purchase of supplies to benefit certain suppliers" and "we would have acquired supplies with expired guarantees". The companies that would have benefited from the military personnel in charge of the administrative procedure would be Hawker Gmbh and Ferrostaal AG.
Luisa Rodríguez, mother of non-commissioned officer Ricardo Gabriel Alfaro, criticized the lack of investment in the Armed Forces. "The fault lies with the bad governments after the Malvinas, who did not give the budget to recover the equipment," she said. "You can not send people with something that is not in condition to a place where you do not know if they are going to come back," the woman added. Regarding the ARA San Juan, Rodriguez recalled that although it was repaired, it is far from being a modern vessel. "They said 'duck on the water' and a submarine can not be confused with a duck," said Andrea, Alfaro's wife, in reference to the sentence that Cristina Kirchner released when the ship returned to activity after its half-life repair. "They are old, very old ships, and I tell President Macri to be aware of how this is," Rodríguez insisted.
Assuming that the submarine remained intact after the blast and settled to the ocean floor, the ship had only a seven-day supply of oxygen, which might have run out Wednesday 22 November 2017. Obvously, the exact location of the submarine was un-knowable at that time, but the waters in the general vicinity of the last reported location of the boat ranged from about 300 feet [several times less than the submarine's crush depth] to possibly 3,000 feet [several times greater than the submarine's crush depth].
But furious relatives forced the navy to confirm there had been a massive explosion near to where the sub was in the hours before its last transmission on Wednesday, November 15. Itati Leguizamon, whose husband was one the crew members blasted the navy, calling them “perverse bastards”. She said: “According to them, they only found out about the explosion now, but who is so stupid to believe that? They are a disgrace, they lied to us.”
The U.S. Navy and an international nuclear test ban monitoring organization said the "hydroacoustic anomaly'' was produced just hours after the navy lost contact with the submarine. The Argentine navy described the explosion that followed near the sub's location as an "anomalous, short, violent." [there is evidently a conflict as to whether the explosion occured before or after the last transmission from the boat]
The Argentine Navy confirmed 23 November 2017 that there was an explosion in the area where the lost submarine was last seen on Nov. 15, Clarin reported. Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi mentioned that this would explain why the crew didn't use any of the emergency mechanisms. Balbi added that information suggested that the submarine could have experienced an implosion, explaining why they hadn't found any pieces of the submarine in the sea. They said a sound was detected four hours after the last contact was made with the submarine, which had an electric fault. The Argentine navy lost contact with the ARA San Juan submarine shortly after the vessel's captain reported a failure in the battery system while the sub was submerged off Argentina's South Atlantic coast.
The search for the Argentine submarine "ARA San Juan" that lost contact with the base on Wednesday 15 November 2017, continued for days without results. In a written message, Pope Francis, also an Argentinian, said that he prayed for the 44 sailors and assured the families of the crew members, the military and civilian authorities of "his closeness in these difficult times". Previously, Navy spokesman Balbi said one possibility was that the submarine couldn't go afloat and was stranded in the bottom of the sea, or that it could have been navigating on the surface.
The submarine had recently [in 2014] completed an extensive overhaul, beginning in 2007, that had entailed extensive repairs, including cutting the boat in half to replace the propulsion system. All this work was done by a workforce that had never worked on a submarine, or had not done such work in over two decades. President Fernandez de Kirchner celebrated the completion of the repairs in 2011, but in reality three more years were needed before the work was done. It might be speculated that the limited competence of the workforce, or political pressure from the President, could have introduced flaws in the boat that created problems in 2017.
The first information indicated that a power failure had generated a fire in the battery bank of the ship, but this was denied by the Navy since no emergency warning was received before the communication was lost. "At the moment we have no news of communication liaison or visual or a fire in the battery area, if something important had happened, a special signal would have been issued and that did not happen," the Navy spokesperson added, denying the versions that circulated about what could happen to teh boat.
The government launched a "search and rescue" state on Friday in accordance with international maritime maritime conventions to intensify efforts to find the vessel. The "ARA San Juan", with 44 crew onboard, sailed from the port of Ushuaia and the Mar del Plata, 400 km south of Buenos Aires, when it lost contact on Wednesday.
"We believe that there has been a difficult communication problem, perhaps because of power supply, and we hope it is on the surface, but the detection is difficult," Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said. All the ships in the zone were summoned to inform about any sighting or signal of communication of the submarine, as well as the bases of the coast. The head of the naval base of Mar del Plata, Gabriel Gonzalez explained that " waves of 7 or 8 meters and winds of 40 knots were recorded " that make the search difficult and stressed that international aid continues to arrive.
Argentine spokesman Enrique Balbi said on November 18, that the main reason for the lack of contact with the submarine was considered to be "serious communication problems" that could be associated with malfunctions in the power supply system. "We believe that it is on the surface," he added.
The crew of Argentina's lost ARA San Juan submarine endured an excruciating two hours battling fires aboard the stricken vessel before it imploded at depth and sank, an official investigation revealed 06 April 2018. On 15 November 2017, fire broke out in the battery tank located in the San Juan's bow. Water had entered through the sub's snorkel, triggering what was swiftly to become a fatal incident. Despite the influx of water, the vessel dove to a greater depth and attempted to continue the journey to its home naval base Mar del Plata, 400 kilometers south of the capital Buenos Aires.
Investigators told the Nacion newspaper that the fires most likely spread throughout the stricken submarine, forcing the crew to battle the blaze in ferocious conditions. According to their report, the vessel eventually imploded – killing the 44 crew almost instantly and sinking into the depths. The investigating commission was formed by Rear Admiral Adolfo Trama and Alejandro Kenny, along with Captain Jorge Bergallo, father of crew member Jorge Ignacio Bergallo. The commission also ruled out maintenance issues, rejecting claims the submarine was not seaworthy when it embarked on its ill-fated final voyage.
Lawyers prosecuting the case of Argentina's missing ARA San Juan submarine, which disappeared from radars on 15 November 2017 last year with all 44 crew on board, claimed 26 May 2018 that the vessel lacked sufficient food and oxygen supplies necessary to survive an emergency. Prosectur Valeria Carrera reached the conclusion based on a report presented in Congress by the current head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Marcos Peña.
The vessel needed to carry sufficient supplies to last seven days for all 44 crew members, but the supplies on board were not enough for everyone, according to the report. The report concluded that the submarine had "240 units of mixed preserves, emergency rations, in thermosealed flavors;" 240 half-liter bottles of Gatorade energy drink, and two cereal bars plus two chocolate bars for every crew member. Based on the documents submitted in the case, Carrera estimated that although the supplies covered seven days, they were adequate to feed "only 34 crew members – ten less than the missing crew," said the lawyer.
Air and escape suits also failed to meet the minimum requirements, Carrera continued. There were 600 fewer canister filters – used to avoid contamination by carbon dioxide – than the minimum recommended by the ship's manufacturer, and most had already expired. In addition, "they also carried 24 OR 3000 oxygen devices (commonly called candelas), for the provision of six days of emergency oxygen, when the manufacturer of the submarine stipulates 100," said Carrera.
Months before the submarine's ill-fated final voyage, San Juan Commander Pedro Martin Fernandez put in a series of claims with the Argentine Navy, including for canned food and boned chicken. Commander Fernandez also raised the fact that crew members had to buy drinks themselves to compensate for the short supply.
After having released moorings on 09 September 2018 from the port of Comodoro Rivadavia to give continuity to the scientific search of the submarine ARA "San Juan", the ship of the company Ocean Infinity began operating in the area 1 of exploration, where it arrived at 15:45, positioning itself at the southeast end of it at Latitude 46° 13.6 South, Longitude 59° 35.2 West.
The company estimated that in ten days it will sweep an area of 3200 km2 corresponding to the three areas defined by them based on the information received from the Argentine Navy and from other international sources that were consulted for the planning of the operation. Upon arriving at each of them, they will launch the five AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) at sea with two hours difference between them (total 10 hours), mapping the submarine bed with South / North general direction for 42 consecutive hours. After the recovery of the same (10 hours), the data collected by the side scan sonar, multibeam probe and magnetometer (4 hours) will be downloaded, and finally processed (12 hours).
The AUV have an immersion capacity of 6000 mtrs. of depth. Two types of ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicles) equipped with high definition cameras will be used to identify the objects found in the search. If the search in those three areas is unsuccessful, the company will expand to a circle of 25 nautical miles of radius centered on the last reported position of the submarine on November 15, 2017. By contract, the company Ocean Infinity does not have any geographical limitations for the search and have a minimum of 60 operating days and a maximum of 120, and must make a photographic and audiovisual record in case of the discovery of the wreck.
Authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the San Juan's disappearance. The judge heading the case has so far heard testimony from 70 people but says she is no closer to knowing what happened.
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