By The Associated Press
Ships from the Indonesian Navy are searching against the clock on Thursday for a submarine that probably sank in the ocean too deep to rescue it, reducing the chances of survival of the
53 crew members on board
.
Local authorities said oxygen would run out early on Saturday.
Several neighboring countries were preparing to join the complex rescue operation.
The diesel submarine
KRI Nanggala 402
was participating in training exercises on Wednesday when contact was lost.
Authorities reported an oil slick near where he had begun his last dive, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) north of the resort island of Bali, although there is no conclusive evidence connecting that sign to the missing ship.
"
Let's hope we can rescue them before the oxygen runs out
" at 3 am on Saturday, Indonesian Navy Chief of Staff Yudo Margono told reporters.
Rescuers found an unidentified object with high magnetism at a depth of 165 to 330 feet (50 to 100 meters), which authorities expect to be the submarine.
They fear in any case that the ship would sink to a depth of between 2,000 to 2,300 feet (600 and 700 meters), greater than it could withstand.
[Twelve missing after shipwrecked in a storm off the Louisiana coast]
Ahn Guk-hyeon, an employee of the South Korean company Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, which overhauled the ship between 2009 and 2012, said
the submarine would be destroyed if it sinks more than 655 feet
(200 meters) deep due to pressure.
The Indonesian Navy submarine KRI Alugoro sails during the search for KRI Nanggala, the submarine that disappeared on the island of Bali on Wednesday.
Frank Owen, secretary of the Australian Submarine Institute, explained that even if it was not destroyed, the vessel could be too deep to carry out the rescue.
"
Most rescue systems can only go as low as 1,970 feet
(600 meters)," he said, "they can go lower because they will have a margin of safety built into the design, but pumps and other associated systems may not have the capability. to operate. So they can survive that depth, but not necessarily function. "
Owen, a former sub who developed an Australian submarine rescue system, said the Indonesian vessel was not equipped with a rescue seat around a rescue escape hatch.
He said a rescue submarine would make a waterproof connection to a disabled submarine with a so-called skirt that is placed over the rescue seat so that the hatch can be opened without the disabled submarine filling with water.
[One of the largest ships in the world runs aground and blocks the Suez Canal]
Owen noted that the sub
could recover from 1,640 feet
(500 meters) without damage, but could not say whether it would have imploded at 2,297 feet (700 meters).
An Argentine submarine disappeared in November 2017 with 44 crew members in the South Atlantic, almost a year before its remains were found 2,625 feet (800 meters) deep.
In 2019, 14 sailors died due to a fire in a Russian deep-sea research submersible.
The dramatic helicopter rescue of an immigrant crossing the desert with a broken leg
April 3, 202100: 35
Indonesian President Joko Widodo asked the entire population to
pray
that they
could find the submarine
and its crew.
"Our top priority is the safety of the 53 crew members," Widodo said in a televised address, "to the families of the crew members, I can understand their feelings and we are doing everything we can to save everyone who are on board. "
[A 4-year-old girl is swept out to sea in her unicorn float: "She was in a state of shock"]
There are
more than 20 Navy ships, two submarines
and five aircraft searching the area where the vessel was last detected.
A hydro-oceanographic survey vessel equipped with underwater detection capabilities was also en route to the spot where the oil slick was found, which may have been caused by a crack in a tank, according to Margono.
Rescue ships from Singapore and Malaysia are expected to arrive in the area on Saturday.
Australia, the United States, Germany, France, Russia, India and Turkey also offered assistance, the Indonesian military noted.
"
This looks like a terrible tragedy
and it is in an area of very deep water, perhaps 2,297 feet to 2,625 feet (700 or 800 meters) deep," said Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton.
[The dramatic rescue of a man in a burning car after a police chase]
The Indonesian Navy said a power failure could have occurred during the dive, causing the submarine to lose control and unable to carry out emergency procedures that would have allowed it to return to the surface.
The submarine, of
German manufacture and in service in Indonesia since 1981
, carried 49 crew members, its commander and three gunners, according to the Indonesian Ministry of Defense.
It had been maintained and revised in Germany, Indonesia and, more recently, in South Korea.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, has faced increasing challenges to its maritime claims in recent years, including numerous incidents with Chinese vessels near the Natuna Islands.
