MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentine navy reveals water entered the submarine's snorkel causing battery short circuit
“They had to isolate the battery and continue to sail underwater toward Mar del Plata, using another battery,” Navy spokesperson Balbi said. 
After contact was lost, a Vienna-based global network of listening posts, detected a noise the navy said could have been the submarine's implosion. 
Ships with state of the art rescue equipment from countries including the United States and Russia have rushed to join the search. Water entered the snorkel of the Argentine submarine ARA San Juan, causing its battery to short-circuit before it went missing November 15, a navy spokesman said on Monday as hope dwindled among some families of the 44-member crew.
The ARA San Juan had only a seven-day oxygen supply when it lost contact, and a sudden noise was detected that the navy says could have been the implosion of the vessel. Ships with rescue equipment from countries including the United States and Russia have rushed to join the search.
Before its disappearance, the submarine had been ordered back to its Mar del Plata base after it reported water had entered the vessel through its snorkel, causing a battery to short-circuit, navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told a news conference.
“They had to isolate the battery and continue to sail underwater toward Mar del Plata, using another battery,” Balbi said.
After contact with ARA San Juan was lost, the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, an international body that runs a global network of listening posts designed to check for secret atomic blasts, detected a noise the navy said could have been the submarine's implosion.
The search for the 65-meter diesel-electric submarine is concentrated in an area some 430 km off Argentina's southern coast. The effort includes ships and planes manned by 4,000 personnel from 13 countries, including Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru and Great Britain.
Among the crew's family members, fissures started appearing Monday between those who refuse to give up hope and those who say it is time to accept that their loved ones will not come back alive.
Some relatives have said they are focusing on the lack of physical evidence of an implosion and the possibility that the submarine might have risen close enough to the ocean surface to replenish its oxygen supply after it went missing.
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Read all commentsIt came out I think towards the end of the first week of the disaster that the submarine crew had reported a problem with a battery in their last communication. Armed with that information it is extraordinary that misleading and fudged information was put out. They must have known this was the likely cause of the sub being in trouble and they also had a clear location of the last known position and the likely course the vessel would have been taking. So whilst we can all appreciate that incidents happen and submariners know the risks, the handling of the crisis has been chaotic at best.
Nov 28th, 2017 - 11:23 am +8What an absolute shame that these deaths are being played like a political football with no thought to the added pain it causes the families of those lost.
I don't understand this although I accept the fact that I am not an expert in submarines but surely if one of the batteries was contaminated with seawater then she should have surfaced not continued on submerged and why is this only coming out now or do I smell some arse-covering and a 'let's blame the captain because he can't answer back' scenario starting to develope
Nov 28th, 2017 - 10:48 am +5Well, page-boy, it looks like Argentina has set the record for the first loss of a post-war German diesel-electric submarine, and the record for losing a submarine with the least number of operational hours since mid-life upgrade. Congratulations !
Nov 28th, 2017 - 06:48 pm +5Commenting for this story is now closed.
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