Indonesian Navy ships were deployed on Thursday, the second day of intensive searches to locate a missing submarine with 53 men off Bali, as several countries sent aid.
• Read also: Missing Indonesian submarine off Bali, 53 men on board
“It has not yet been found,” navy spokesman Julius Widjojono told AFP.
“But we have detected the area (…) and today around 400 soldiers and relief personnel have been deployed.”
The research is focused around an oil slick spotted in the area where the submersible, built forty years ago, plunged Wednesday during military exercises in the north of the island of Bali.
Hydrocarbons can signal either damage to the submersible tank or a discharge sent as a distress signal, according to the spokesperson.
53 people aboard the submersible which is said to be at a depth of 700 meters, according to the commander of the Indonesian armed forces Hadi Tjahjanto.
Six naval ships and a helicopter are involved in the search, as well as rescue at sea.
Alarming depth
The German-made submersible, the KRI Nanggala 402, was to participate in maneuvers including torpedo fire on Wednesday. He had requested permission to dive early Wednesday morning and contact with the submarine was lost soon after.
Several countries offered their assistance, including the United States, Australia, France and Germany.
“We are obviously very worried about this information. It is an alarming situation for families in particular and for the Indonesian Navy, ”Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne observed on ABC channel.
“We have indicated that we are ready to help in any way we can.”
Neighboring Malaysia and Singapore have sent relief boats which are expected to arrive in the coming days, army spokesman Achmad Riad said.
French Vice-Admiral Antoine Beaussant observed that the submarine’s position at a depth of 700 meters probably signaled damage.
Such a building can descend below 250 meters, “a safety coefficient imposed for the life of the submarine,” he told AFP. But “if it is placed at 700 meters, there is every chance that it will be broken”.
The Indonesian Navy, which in recent years has sought to strengthen its submarine capabilities, has a fleet of five submersibles in total, German and South Korean built.
The KRI Nanggala 402 is an attack submarine with diesel and electric engines weighing 1,395 tons, about sixty meters long. The “Type 209” submersible was built from 1978 in Germany, and delivered in October 1981 to Indonesia.
It was then modernized twice.
Indonesia has never experienced serious submarine incidents before, but several other countries have been hit by deadly submarine crashes in the past.
The precedent of the Kursk
In 2000, the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk, the flagship of the Russian Northern Fleet, sank during maneuvers in the Barents Sea (northwestern Russia), resulting in the death of 118 members of its crew.
One of the torpedoes had exploded, destroying the entire stockpile of ammunition and sending the building 110 meters deep.
In 2017, the Argentine fleet submarine San Juan, with 44 sailors on board, disappeared some 400 kilometers from the Argentine coast.
In 2019, the wreck of the French submarine La Minerve, which sank in 1968 with 52 men on board, was found in the Mediterranean.
This submersible sank in just four minutes off Toulon (south-eastern France) and broke on the seabed for reasons that have not been established to date.