Hopes of finding survivors from a missing Argentine submarine with 44 crew members aboard have been revived after the navy said it had detected what could be distress calls.
There has been no contact with the ARA San Juan since early on Wednesday, prompting Buenos Aires to launch an air and sea search with help from countries including Brazil, Britain, Chile, Uruguay and the US.
The search has been complicated by stormy conditions, Argentine navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said on Saturday.
However, the Argentine Minister of Defense said it had detected seven satellite-transmitted signals that may be an attempt by the submarine to resume contact.
The signals were received at 10:52am and 3:42pm on various naval bases with the help from US satellite communication experts, but they did not lock in, thus preventing a full connection.
“Right now, we are working to pinpoint the exact location of what is emitting the signals,” presuming that it could be the missing sub, the ministry said.
Early yesterday, the US Southern Command said it was sending a second Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft to join the search. The Florida-based plane and a crew of 21 are to reach Argentina later in the day.
A NASA P-3 research aircraft is already participating in the search, Southern Command said.
The California-based Undersea Rescue Command earlier said it was deploying two underwater crafts designed to rescue trapped sub crews at different depths, as well as a remotely operated underwater robot.
“We will do what is necessary to find the submarine as soon as possible,” Argentine President Mauricio Macri wrote on Twitter.
All land communications bases along the coast were ordered to scan for any followup, as family members of the missing waited nervously in Mar del Plata.
Claudio Rodriguez, whose brother Hernan is aboard the submarine, was hopeful, saying the satellite signals suggested the vessel was still afloat and would be found.
“They’ve got to be afloat. Thank God,” he said.
“That gives us hope, because we knew that if they were down below, they would be screwed,” he told TN news from the city of Mendoza.
The Argentine navy has not ruled out any hypothesis, a spokesman said.
The most likely scenario given is that a power short may have unexpectedly cut off the vessel’s communications.
The San Juan is a TR-1700 class diesel-electric submarine that had been returning from a routine mission to Ushuaia near the southernmost tip of South America, to its base at Mar del Plata.
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