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Search for missing Argentinian submarine enters critical phase Search for missing Argentinian submarine enters critical phase
(about 5 hours later)
The search for the Argentinian submarine ARA San Juan and its 44 crew members has entered a “critical phase” as the vessel’s probable oxygen reserves reach their seven-day limit, a navy spokesperson said. Relatives of those aboard an Argentinian submarine that went missing in the South Atlantic a week ago have voiced their frustrations with rescue efforts, as hopes of finding the 44-member crew begin to fade.
Oxygen reserves under normal conditions for a submerged submarine such as the ARA San Juan would last about a week, depending on the situation inside the submarine, navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said. If there had been an oxygen-consuming fire on board, that time would be reduced. reached on Wednesday morning, hopes are now pinned on the submarine having been able to replenish its oxygen supply by surfacing at some point during the last week.
The multinational search and rescue effort continued on Wednesday in the south Atlantic Ocean as ships and aircraft look for the missing vessel, which lost radio contact with the navy at 7.30am last Wednesday. Helena Alfaro was just one of many family members who congregated at the Mar del Plata naval base where the submarine was originally scheduled to arrive on Monday.
About 30 boats and planes and 4,000 people from Argentina, the US, Britain, Chile and Brazil have joined the search for the submarine, which last transmitted its location about 300 miles (480km) from the coast of Argentina’. “I feel like I’m waiting for a corpse,” said Alfaro, the sister of radar officer Cristian Ibañez, a crew member of the missing submarine.
Planes have covered 500,000 sq km (190,000 sq miles) of the ocean surface, but much of the area has not yet been scoured by the boats. “So much protocol, so much protocol,” she complained to TN news network, referring to the Argentinian navy’s long delay in advising the president, Mauricio Macri, that it had lost contact with the submarine.
“We’re considering three scenarios: the submarine is above the surface with its engines running, adrift at sea without propulsion or submerged on the bottom of the ocean,” Balbi told reporters on Wednesday morning. Justifying the delay, Navy chiefs said that military protocol advises a 48-hour waiting period before beginning search efforts for submarines lost at sea.
Hopes were raised overnight after a British ship participating in the search spotted flares, but were quickly dashed. “I feel like I’m at a wake, that’s how I feel,” said a tearful Alfaro. “I also feel time passing and time is crucial. I’m deeply pained by the decisions taken. Why so much protocol? Is protocol going to bring them back?”
“The HMS Protector yesterday saw three flares being fired and three ships were sent to patrol the area overnight,” Balbi said, “but no sonar contact was made and there is nothing to suggest the flares were from the missing submarine.” Macri is reportedly angry with his navy commanders because of their handling of the crisis. According to the Infobae website, Macri’s defence minister, Oscar Aguad, only learned the submarine was missing when he read about it in the press, after the navy announced last Saturday that it had lost contact with the San Juan on 15 November.
Relatives of the missing crew have criticised authorities for deploying the 34-year-old submarine, which was built in Germany in 1983. It was en route from Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, to the coastal city of Mar del Plata, 250 miles south of Buenos Aires, when it reported an electrical malfunction shortly before disappearing last week. Also being called into question is the wisdom of having deployed a 34-year-old submarine to make the 10-day journey from the Argentinian port of Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, to the naval base in Mar del Plata.
In a video that has gone viral online, Argentina’s president, Mauricio Macri, is seen being berated by a female relative of an ARA San Juan crew member during his visit to the Mar del Plata naval base on Monday morning. The submarine had been scheduled to arrive at the base that day. The state of disrepair of Argentina’s naval fleet has long been an issue in the country. In one notorious incident, the navy’s British-built destroyer Santisima Trinidad, which participated on the Argentinian side in the 1982 war with Britain over the Falkland Islands, sank while moored at the Puerto Belgrano naval base in 2013. It took the navy two years to refloat the vessel.
“It’s practically suicide to send them out in something so old,” a femalerelative is heard telling the president in the video. “Couldn’t youinvest the state budget in trying to buy a new submarine? You’re playing with the lives of our people. Does someone have to die for things to change?” In a video that went viral online, Macri, can be seen being berated by a female relative of an ARA San Juan crew member during his visit to the Mar del Plata naval base on Monday morning because of the age of the submarine.
Families are receiving psychological support from naval doctors at the base. “It’s practically suicide to send them out in something so old,” a female relative is heard telling the president in the video. “Couldn’t you invest the state budget in trying to buy a new submarine? You’re playing with the lives of our people. Does someone have to die for things to change?”
“We’re grateful for the support,” María Victoria García, the mother of missing crew member Luis Esteban García, told the TN news station. “I have my sights placed on God and the Virgin Mary asking them to bring him back. I am shouting to the sea to send back my son.”