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| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesia submarine with 53 on board goes missing north of Bali |
| 2021-04-22 |
| Via Boris Rozhin [AlJazeera] Indonesia’s navy is searching for a missing submarine with 53 people on board that went missing on Wednesday and is seeking help from neighbouring Australia and Singapore in the hunt. The 44-year-old German-made submarine, KRI Nanggala-402, was conducting a torpedo drill in waters north of the island of Bali but failed to relay the results as expected, the navy said. An aerial search found an oil spill near the submarine’s dive location and two navy vessels with sonar capability have been deployed to assist the hunt, the defence ministry said. Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from Jakarta, said: “Hopefully, that is something of a breakthrough which could help with finding the location of this vessel and the 53 individuals on board.” “We understand that the Indonesian navy is currently in the process of surveilling the area both by air and sea,” she said. A defence ministry statement said requests for assistance had been sent and Australia, Singapore and India had responded. “We are still searching in the waters of Bali, 60 miles (96 km) from Bali, (for) 53 people,” military chief Hadi Tjahjanto told Reuters news agency in a text message. Tjahjanto said the navy has deployed scores of ships to search the area, including a hydrographic survey ship. He said that contact with the vessel was lost at 4:30 am on Wednesday. CNN Indonesia reported that Indonesian navy official Julius Widjojono said he suspected the submarine had descended to a depth of 600-700 metres. |
| Posted by:badanov |