Crew of Missing Argentine Submarine Had Been Ordered Back to Home Port
BRAZIL 500 Miles ARGENTINA URUGUAY Buenos Aires Atlantic Ocean Mar del Plata CHILE Approximate search area Falkland Islands BRAZIL
500 Miles ARGENTINA URUGUAY Buenos Aires Mar del Plata CHILE Atlantic Ocean Approximate search area Falkland Islands NOV. 20, 2017
The developments came as a team from several nations raced against time
and battled stormy seas in a frantic effort to find the vessel in a 186-square-mile search area off the coast of Argentina’s Patagonia.
20, 2017
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina — The Argentine Navy disclosed on Monday
that the crew of a missing submarine had been ordered to return to its home port on Wednesday after reporting a battery failure.
The navy said on Monday that satellite phone calls made from the search area on Saturday — prompting hope
that they could signal the crew was alive — were not made from the missing submarine.
Balbi said that It’s a sound out in the sea,
Enrique Balbi, an Argentine Navy spokesman, said Monday afternoon
that search teams were analyzing a sound recorded in the search area earlier in the day to see if it might have been produced by the crew.
The revelation was the first official confirmation
that the Navy had known since Wednesday — when the submarine vanished — that the vessel was contending with equipment malfunction and might have the lost the ability to propel itself.