On the 15th November the ARA, an Argentinian submarine, vanished off the east coast of Argentina due to a breakdown.
The Argentinian Navy has announced that, in their last communication, the ARA submarine that disappeared the 15th November had earlier reported a breakdown 430 km off the east coast of Argentina.
In their last message, they explained that the batteries had short-circuited. The Navy admitted that these kinds of problems were very common but they usually didn’t put the crew’s lives at risk; nevertheless, these warships are made to last long, even in extreme conditions.
The submarine’s mission was to patrol the South-East coast of Argentina. It departed from Ushuaia Naval Base and was supposed to have reached Mar de la Plata by the 21st. However, its mission was cut short due to the problem faced by the crew. The navy tried to contact the missing submarine but failed. The calls only lasted 4 to 36 seconds.
Furthermore, the rescues used an echo locator to find the exact position of the submarine, but unfortunately the radar didn’t give any satisfying results.
Also planes and boats, sent by the twelve other countries, have joined the search for the ARA, but mechanical problems, wind and waves hampered the search.
The missing submarine has a crew of 44 people who, according to the Navy, were in perfect health at the time of the ARA’s patrol, so the problem was purely mechanical and had nothing to do with the condition of the men who embarked in the submarine.
The submarine was a model built in Germany in 1983 and is 66 metres long. Its maximum speed is 45 km/h and can travel 22,224 km without refuelling.
By Malo L.,Michele M.,Leonardo T.,Vivian F.