Indonesian Navy ships yesterday scoured the waters off Bali as they raced against time to find a submarine that disappeared two days ago and has less than one day’s supply of oxygen left for its 53 crew.
The KRI Nanggala 402 on Wednesday went missing after its last reported dive off the resort island, and concern is mounting that the submarine might have sunk too deep to reach or recover.
A navy official said that the submarine was expected to run out of oxygen by 3am today.
“We will maximize the effort today, until the time limit tomorrow 3am,” navy spokesman Achmad Riad told reporters.
There have been no signs of life from the submarine, but Riad refused to speculate on its fate.
A total of 24 navy and other ships, as well as a patrol plane, were mobilized for the search with a focus on the area where an oil slick was found after the submarine disappeared during an exercise. Rescuers made similar massive searches in the two previous days.
An Australian military ship equipped with a sonar device and a helicopter was set to arrive later yesterday. A second Australian warship, as well as Singaporean and Malaysian rescue ships, were also expected in the coming days.
“These two Australian ships will help expand the search area and extend the duration of search effort,” Royal Australian Navy Rear Admiral Mark Hammond said.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo yesterday headed to Banyuwangi, where the rescue ships left earlier.
He asked Indonesians to pray for the crew’s safe return, while ordering all-out efforts to locate the stricken submarine.
“Our main priority is the safety of 53 crew members,” Widodo said in a televised address on Thursday. “To the family of the crew members, I can understand your feelings and we are doing our best to save all crew members on board.”
There has been no conclusive evidence that the oil slick was from the submarine. Indonesian Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Yudo Margono said that the oil could have spilled from a crack in the submarine’s fuel tank, or the crew could have released fuel and fluids to reduce the vessel’s weight so it could surface.
However, an unidentified object with high magnetism was located at a depth of 50m to 100m and officials held out hope that it is the submarine.
The navy said it believes that the submarine sank to a depth of 600m to 700m, much deeper than its collapse depth of 200m, at which water pressure would be greater than the hull could withstand.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
RSS