Indonesia: hope of finding the 53 crew members of the missing submarine in Bali alive is exhausted

The hopes of finding the 53 crew members alive aboard a submarine lost in the waters of Indonesia They are turned off due to the supposed depletion in the early morning of this Saturday of their oxygen reserves after 72 hours of their disappearance.

The ship, which disappeared at dawn on Wednesday when it was immersed, has a capacity for about 72 hours of oxygen, a period that expired at 3:46 local time (20:46 GMT on Friday), at the end of three exact days since your dive.

Hundreds of people in boats and helicopters of the Indonesian Navy comb tirelessly helped by the sonar system the waters of the north of the island of Bali where the submarine’s contact was lost KRI Nanggala-402, manufactured in Germany in 1978, during a military maneuver.

The US Navy’s Boeing P-8 Poseidon, designed for anti-submarine warfare and vessel interception, was scheduled to be added to the search last night, but the Indonesian authorities have not yet confirmed its arrival.

In addition to the US, Australia, India and Singapore have also been involved in the search, with special equipment that can help locate the submarine, although there is little hope that the crew is still alive.

The search is focused on nine points within a ten-nautical-mile zone, tracking fuel leaks and detected magnetic fields, which could indicate the presence of the spacecraft.

A canoe passes an Indonesian Navy ship at the Banyuwangi naval base. (SONNY TUMBELAKA / AFP).

According to information from the Indonesian Army, the submarine began the dive at 3:46 local time (20:46 GMT on Tuesday) and about 15 minutes later the loading of torpedo tube number 8 began.

The last communication with the crew took place at 4:25 local time (21:25 GMT on Tuesday) and before authorizing the launch of the torpedo, the connection with the ship was lost.

One of the main clues is a fuel slick found in the sea, which could indicate that the crew members released fuel to lighten the ship at a depth of between 50 and 100 meters.

Another explanation being considered by the Indonesian Navy is that a rupture of the fuel tank caused the device to sink to about 500 or 700 meters, a depth for which it was not prepared.

Indonesia It currently has a fleet of five submarines, two of German manufacture, including the missing one, which was acquired in 1981, and three manufactured in South Korea.