Argentine navy loses contact with submarine carrying 44
The ARA San Juan, a German-built diesel-electric vessel, docked in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Argentina's Navy said it has lost contact with the submarine off the country's southern coast.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina's navy said Friday it has lost contact with a submarine off the country's southern coast, but doesn't consider it lost.
The navy's Twitter feed said that communications were lost Wednesday with the ARA San Juan, a German-built diesel-electric vessel with 44 crewmembers aboard.
It said navy ships and aircraft were searching near the last known location of the vessel off the province of Chubut. It also said it was scanning all possible radio transmission frequencies for a sign of the San Juan.
Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told the Todo Noticias channel that there was no indication of problems from the submarine and said it couldn't yet be termed lost.
"It's not that it's lost, because to be lost, you have to look for it and not find it," he said.
Adm. Gabriel Gonzalez, chief of the Mar del Plata base that was the submarine's destination, said the vessel had sufficient food and oxygen.
"We have a loss of communications; we are not talking of an emergency," he said.
There are 44 crewmembers aboard the missing submarine.
Still, relatives of some of the crewmembers were at the base awaiting word of the search.
"We are praying to God and asking that all Argentines help us to pray that they keep navigating and that they can be found," said Claudio Rodriguez, brother of one of the crewmembers, speaking to Todo Noticias.
"We have faith that it's only a loss of communications," he added.
Balbi said the sub was headed from the naval base at Ushuaia in the country's extreme south to Mar del Plata, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) east of Buenos Aires.
The San Juan was commissioned in 1985 and was most recently refit in 2014
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Not sure how deep it is where she was operating. No idea if they could survive a sinking.
E.A at this stage a sinking might not need to be considered, with all the " Propaganda wars " going on " Signal Blocking " could well be part of the " game plan "
Satellite calls likely to be from missing submarine, Argentina says
Argentina's defence ministry says seven failed "satellite calls" that it believes came from a missing naval submarine were detected three days after it went missing in a likely sign the crew of 44 was trying to re-establish contact.
Teams from several countries have intensified their efforts in the South Atlantic to find the ARA San Juan submarine, which vanished on Wednesday.
The US Navy has sent a second ship with special tracking equipment and deep-sea rescue modules to join the search.
The vessel disappeared 430km (267 miles) off the Argentine coast.
On Saturday, several satellite signals thought to have come from the sub were detected near the Valdez peninsula. A Nasa research plane was used in an attempt to trace the location but was unsuccessful.
Rescue teams have also been hindered by heavy winds and high waves.
Missing Argentinian submarine tried to return to base after power malfunction
An Argentinian military submarine was trying to return to base after reporting an electrical fault when it went missing, the country's navy says, as stormy seas hamper an increasingly desperate search for the missing 44 crewmembers.
Argentina's navy says its ARA San Juan submarine, which has been missing since Wednesday, reported a mechanical breakdown in its last communication.
The submarine, with 44 crew on board, disappeared 430km (270 miles) off the Argentine coast.
"The vessel surfaced and it reported a breakdown," naval commander Gabriel Galeazzi said.
Argentina's navy said a "noise" picked up by sonar on Monday during the search did not come from the vessel.
It is the second false alarm in the hunt for the submarine.
Capt Galeazzi, who heads the naval base in Mar del Plata, south of Buenos Aires, said that the fault reported earlier related to a "short circuit" in the sub's batteries.
The brother of a crew member earlier told local media that in a message before communications were lost his sibling had mentioned that the vessel was having problems with its batteries.
terrible!!
E.A I say there is still a probability that it is a " Communication system block " The " War Games " have many facets