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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| 'Explosion' dashes last hopes for missing Argentine sub with 44 aboard |
| 2017-11-25 |
| [DAWN] Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... 's navy confirmed on Thursday that an unusual noise heard in the Atlantic near the last known position of a missing submarine appeared to be an kaboom, dashing the last hopes of finding the vessel's 44 crew members alive. Relatives of the missing sailors reacted with grief and anger to the news after holding out hope since the sub was reported overdue at its Mar del Plata base on November 17, two days after the kaboom. "An anomalous, singular, short, violent and non-nuclear event consistent with an kaboom," occurred shortly after the submarine's last communication, navy front man Captain Enrique Balbi told a news conference in Buenos Aires. After days of false hopes, some of the relatives said the navy had withheld information about the sub and lied to them over the past week. "I feel cheated," said Itati Leguizamon, whose husband German Suarez was a sonar operator on the ARA San Juan. "They did not tell us they died. But they tell us they are three thousand meters (9,800 feet) deep," added Leguizamon as other family members shouted angrily around her. "They lied to us," said Leguizamon, a lawyer. A sobbing Jessica Gopar, whose husband was an electrician aboard the San Juan, said "they just told us that the submarine went kaboom!." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 Good detail Mike. Thanks for the background. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-11-25 19:35 |
| #6 ...One disturbing story I've heard (from submariners and a naval engineer) is that the sub's batteries had apparently not been changed out in nine years (budget constraints, ya know) and would only take a small trickle charge while recharging. The skipper got annoyed because it was taking so long and ran the charging plant flat out. The batteries then overheated and caught fire. To make matters worse, the overcharge created excess hydrogen that would have caused the explosion. And to really make it bad, there is a strong possibility that the platinum catalysts used to dissipate the hydrogen buildup may not have been installed due to...budget constraints. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2017-11-25 15:37 |
| #5 And how did they hear the 'kaboom'? In addition to passive sonar, there are seismic sensors as well as sensors to monitor underground testing. In the Kursk accident, if memory serves, the impact of the boat hitting the bottom was picked up by geologists. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2017-11-25 15:04 |
| #4 Supposedly Trump said 45 aboard - just a mistake or does he know something he wasn't supposed to say, like was the sub placing or retrieving someone? Conspiracy theorists want to know. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2017-11-25 14:56 |
| #3 Most military ships are equipped with at least passive sonar. It's interesting what one hear in the ocean. From Wikipedia: Passive sonar listens without transmitting. It is often employed in military settings, although it is also used in science applications, e.g., detecting fish for presence/absence studies in various aquatic environments - see also passive acoustics and passive radar. In the very broadest usage, this term can encompass virtually any analytical technique involving remotely generated sound, though it is usually restricted to techniques applied in an aquatic environment. |
| Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance 2017-11-25 11:48 |
| #2 And how did they hear the 'kaboom'? Monitoring devices spread over the ocean floor maybe? Who would do that? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-11-25 09:40 |
| #1 Rest in Peace. 3,000 meters is (usually) well below crush depth. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2017-11-25 08:52 |