Argentinian Submarine Lost at Sea

ARA San Juan (S-42) is a TR-1700-class diesel-electric submarine in active service with the Argentine Navy as part of the Argentine Submarine Force. The submarine was built in West Germany and entered service on 19 November 1985. San Juan underwent a mid-life update from 2008 to 2013.

                                                            ARA San Juan (S-42)

On 15 November 2017, San Juan stopped communicating during a routine patrol in the South Atlantic off the coast of Argentina. A multi-nation search operation was mounted to try to locate the submarine, which was believed to have suffered an electrical malfunction.

Disappearance

In early November 2017, San Juan was part of a navy exercise in Tierra del Fuego which included the sinking of the ex ARA Somellera as a target. With the war game completed and after a short visit to Ushuaia open to the public, the submarine sailed to her home base at Mar del Plata. On 17 November, it was announced that it had not been heard from since 15 November, and that search and rescue operations had been launched 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) southeast of San Jorge Gulf. There are at least 44 servicemen on board the missing submarine, including Argentina's first female submarine officer, Eliana María Krawczyk. The submarine carries oxygen for no more than seven days when submerged.

On 17 November, Argentine president Mauricio Macri moved to the official residence at Chapadmalal, near Mar del Plata, in order to follow the search and rescue operation more closely. The Argentine Armed Forces set up a centre of operations at the naval base in Mar del Plata, with family members of the submariners also present at the base. The Argentine Navy brought in a team of mental health professionals to aid the families; a team to keep them updated on the search and rescue effort had also been set up.

On 18 November, the Ministry of Defense reported that there had been attempts at communication that day from a satellite phone that was believed to be from the submarine, but it was later determined that the calls were not from the vessel.

On 19 November, the Argentine Armed Forces stated that severe weather with 8-metre (26 ft) waves in the area was hampering the search effort and that weather conditions would not be favourable until 21 November.

On 20 November, the Argentine Navy announced that the "critical phase" for the rescue was approaching. Though the submarine has enough supplies to last 90 days above water, it only has enough oxygen for 7–10 days underwater and it is speculated that it was underwater when communications were lost given the rough weather. The Navy also stated that if the issue had simply been a communications failure, then San Juan would have arrived at Mar del Plata on 19 or 20 November.  The Argentine Navy later reported that sonar systems on two of its ships and sonar buoys dropped by a US P-8A Poseidon aircraft detected noises possibly coming from San Juan; a senior United States Navy officer told CNN that this sounded like banging on the hull in order to alert passing ships; later analysis of the audio determined that the sound "did not correspond to a submarine", and was probably of biological origin. By the end of the day the oceanographic vessels of the Argentine Navy Puerto Deseado and ARA Austral with support of the icebreaker Almirante Maximiano of the Brazilian Navy carried out an extensive scan in the place where the biological sound started. The Royal Navy stated that 10-metre (33 ft) waves had slowed the search, but easing weather led to improved sonar conditions.

As of 21 November, the search area was 482,507 square kilometres (186,297 sq mi) in size; 15 planes and 17 ships were actively searching the area. Weather conditions improved, with 3–4-metre (9.8–13.1 ft) waves, making the search for the submarine less difficult. The United States Navy later reported that one of its planes had detected a heat signature which corresponded to a metallic object at a depth of 70 metres (230 ft), 300 kilometres (190 mi) off the coast of Puerto Madryn. There was no official confirmation from the Argentine Navy whether the object was indeed San Juan, but sources told Clarín newspaper that a fleet in the area led by the corvette ARA Drummond was given orders to proceed "at full speed" towards where the object was detected. At 7:00 pm the British ship HMS Protector, in its maritime patrol area, had seen three flares to the east: one orange and two white. This information was reported to Puerto Belgrano where the Search and Rescue Coordinating Center is set up. The Argentine Navy later determined that both the flares and heat signature were false leads.

On 22 November, the Argentine Navy investigated a "hydroacoustic anomaly" identified on 15 November, three hours after the last contact of the lost submarine; ships and airplanes were sent back to the last contact point with ARA San Juan. During a search flight over the South Atlantic, a U.S. P-8A Poseidon aircraft detected an object near the area where the missing submarine sent its last signal. The plane returned to its base in Bahía Blanca late the same day.

On 23 November the Argentine Navy said an event consistent with an explosion had been detected on the day the submarine lost communications by CTBTO seismic anomaly listening posts on Ascension Island and Crozet Islands. The Navy received information through the Argentine ambassador in Austria since the CTBTO is based in Vienna. The organisation had been asked to analyse data in the search area by the Argentine government on the week of the disappearance, but no leads surfaced until 22 November when the CTBTO informed the government.

                                     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_San_Juan_(S-42)

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Families of the submarine crew have been told that the entire crew is probably dead.  See

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/aboard-missing-argentine-sub-believed-dead-family-missing-174950883--abc-news-topstories.html