An abnormal sound detected in the South Atlantic ocean around the time that an Argentine navy submarine sent its last signal last week was “consistent with an explosion,” a navy spokesman said on Thursday.
An Argentinian navy spokesman, Captain Enrique Balbi, described the blast in the morning of 15 November as “abnormal, singular, short, violent” and “non-nuclear.”
Ships and planes hunting for the ARA San Juan, which went missing in the south Atlantic on 15 November, on Thursday returned to a previously searched area as relatives of those onboard voiced their frustrations with rescue efforts.
With the seven-day limit on the ARA San Juan’s oxygen reserves having been reached on Wednesday morning, what hopes that remain are pinned on the submarine having been able to replenish its oxygen supply by surfacing at some point during the past week.
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.
“I feel like I’m waiting for a corpse,” said Alfaro, the sister of Cristian Ibañez, a radar officer on the missing submarine.
“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.
The Argentinian president, Mauricio Macri, has reportedly criticised naval commanders over 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.
Justifying the delay, navy chiefs said that military protocol advises a 48-hour waiting period before beginning search efforts for submarines lost at sea.
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.