PARIS, July 22. /TASS/. The search group of France’s Ministry for the Armed Forces managed to spot the Minerve submarine that had gone missing on January 27, 1968, Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly reported on Monday.

The submarine is not far from Toulon — a major French naval base in the Mediterranean. "We have discovered the Minerve submarine. It is a great success, a technical exploit, as well as a relief to the relatives of the deceased," the minister said on her Twitter page. Parly offered condolences to the relatives and friends of the deceased "who had to wait for this news for so long."

The submarine that was training to cooperate with a maritime reconnaissance plane sank in 1968. Despite the immediately launched search and rescue operation, the submarine was not detected. There were 52 crew on board. A special autonomous underwater vehicle belonging to the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (INFREMER) was employed in the search. It is capable of collecting data on an area of 10 square kilometers daily.