Sound described as ‘abnormal’ was heard on day that contact was lost, navy spokesman confirms

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The families of the crew of a missing Argentinian navy submarine have reacted with grief and then anger to the possibility that an explosion hit the submarine around the time it sent its last signal on 15 November.

An abnormal sound detected in the South Atlantic ocean was “consistent with an explosion”, the navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said. The navy did not have enough information to say what the cause of the explosion could have been or whether the vessel – the ARA San Juan – might have been attacked, he said.

Relatives of the submarine’s 44 crew members, camped out at a naval base in the coastal city of Mar del Plata, had been largely optimistic before Thursday’s announcement, which prompted cries of anguish and calls for authorities to be held to account.



Footage of relatives collapsing to the pavement as uniformed navy servicemen embraced each other was broadcast on live television, sending shockwaves across Argentina.

A huge sea and air hunt is being conducted for the San Juan, a German-built, diesel- and electric-powered submarine that was launched in 1983. Some relatives have questioned authorities for letting the crew navigate on an ageing submarine - criticism that has highlighted the armed forces’ dwindling resources since the end of a military dictatorship in the 1980s.

Authorities have said the level of maintenance, not the age, was what mattered, and that the vessel was in good condition. It received a midlife upgrade in 2009 in which its four diesel engines and electric propeller engines were replaced, according to the specialist publication Jane’s Sentinel.

“They sent a piece of shit out to navigate,” said Itatí Leguizamón, the wife of the San Juan’s sonar operator Germán Suárez. “We don’t believe they didn’t know from before. They’re perverse bastards who’ve had us here for a week.”

Leguizamón said naval officers had not been able to finish reading relatives the latest report because of the angry reaction. She claimed her husband had told her about an incident in 2014 when the San Juan had been unable to surface.



Elena Alfaro, another relative, told TN news network: “I feel like I’m at a wake. I also feel time passing and time is crucial.”

One relative yelled “they killed my brother” as he drove off after Thursday’s announcement.

Argentina’s centre-right president, Mauricio Macri, has criticised naval commanders over their handling of the crisis. According to the Infobae website, Macri’s defence minister, Oscar Aguad, only learned that the submarine was missing when he read about it in the press.

Macri took office last year promising to increase the military budget.

“I know the state has ignored you for years, abandoned you, and that’s created problems in terms of budget, equipment and infrastructure,” Macri said at an Army Day ceremony in June 2016 in which he promised to improve military salaries and renew armaments.

On Thursday the navy received information from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), an international body that runs a global network of listening posts designed to check for secret atomic blasts.

The Vienna-based agency, which has monitoring stations equipped with devices including underwater microphones that scan the oceans for soundwaves, said in a statement that two of its stations had detected an unusual signal near where the submarine went missing. But the agency was more guarded about whether this was caused by an explosion.

The noise was detected in an area where Argentina’s continental shelf drops off abruptly from a depth of 200 metres to anything up to 5,000 metres, Horacio Tobías, a naval expert, told the TN news network.

The San Juan would be difficult to find if it has sunk beyond the continental shelf. The existence of other sunken ships in that area of the sea floor could increase the difficulty of identifying the remains of the submarine.

With the seven-day limit on the San Juan’s oxygen reserves having been reached on Wednesday morning, what hopes that remained were pinned on the submarine having been able to replenish its oxygen supply by surfacing at some point during the past week.

Relatives have had their hopes raised and then dashed on a number of occasions already. Underwater sounds detected in the first days of the search by two Argentinian search ships were determined to have originated from a sea creature, not the vessel. Satellite signals were also determined to be false alarms.

Russia was the latest navy to volunteer to a multinational sea search, sending an oceanographic research ship as the operation shifted focus from rescue to recovery.

“I feel cheated,” said Leguizamón. “They say they only found out now, but how can they have only found out now?”

She said other relatives were also furious. “They’re tearing up everything in there,” she told reporters outside the naval base. “How would you react if you were lied to?

“They [the navy] didn’t use the word ‘dead’ but that’s the logical conclusion.”

Reuters contributed to this story