An Indonesian submarine that went missing off the coast of Bali has sunk, the country’s navy said yesterday, dashing hopes that its 53 crew would be saved.
The navy’s chief said a search party had recovered fragments from the KRI Nanggala 402, including items from inside the vessel, whose oxygen reserves were already believed to have run out.
Warships, planes and hundreds of military personnel have been searching for the stricken vessel. Authorities had said the German-built craft was equipped with enough oxygen for only three days after losing power.
Photo: EPA-EFE
That deadline passed early yesterday.
“We have raised the status from submiss to subsunk,” navy chief Yudo Margono told reporters, adding that the retrieved items could not have come from another vessel.
“[The items] would not have come outside the submarine if there was no external pressure or without damage to its torpedo launcher,” he said.
Navy officials displayed several items including a piece of a torpedo and a bottle of grease used to lubricate a submarine’s periscope.
They also found a prayer mat used by Muslims.
The submarine — one of five in Indonesia’s fleet — disappeared early on Wednesday during live torpedo training exercises off the Indonesian holiday island.
An oil spill spotted where the submarine was thought to have submerged pointed to possible fuel-tank damage, fanning fears of a deadly disaster.
There were concerns that the submarine could have been crushed by water pressure if it sank to depths reaching 700m — well below what it was built to withstand.
The vessel was scheduled to conduct the training exercises when it asked for permission to dive.
It lost contact shortly after.
Authorities have not offered possible explanations for the submarine’s sudden disappearance or commented on questions about whether the decades-old vessel was overloaded.
The military has said the submarine, delivered to Indonesia in 1981, was seaworthy.
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