One day after a year of its disappearance, the submarine ARA San Juan was found at 917 meters depth, about 500 kilometers from the San Jorge Gulf, at the height of Comodoro Rivadavia. The information was confirmed to Infobae by the highest authorities of the Argentine Navy.
The vessel, which disappeared with its 44 crew members on November 15, 2017, was found at 0.30 on Saturday, as indicated by force.
The information was confirmed shortly after by a brief statement from the Navy. "The Ministry of Defense and the Argentine Navy report that on the date of the date, the POI 24 reported by the Ocean Infinity company was investigated, through the observation made with an ROV (remote observation vehicle) at 800 meters from the depth, positive identification has been given to the submarine ARA San Juan, "said a brief statement. Before issuing this communication, the Navy warned the family members of the crew.
On Friday night, the vessel Seabed Constructor, in charge of the search for the submarine ARA San Juan, arrived at the so-called "Site 1". A object of "60 meters in length " had been detected from a new analysis of images collected during the first days of the search.
The ship, sent back to the search by the North American company Ocean Infinity, hired by the Government to search for the submarine, arrived in the area at 22:23 on Friday. Two hours later, he confirmed that it was the missing submarine.
The Seabed Constructor sailed "with better weather conditions , " said the Navy, so it did not have problems for the operations that ended with the discovery of the lost vessel.
The confirmation came after one of the minisubmarine submerged more than 900 meters inside the area "15A-4".
The company Ocean Infinity had considered that it was a "type C contact", that is, similar to a submarine because of its size. Exactly, "60 meters long", confirmed an official part released hours ago by the Argentine Navy.
As a result of this the decision was made to return to the area on Thursday, just the last day in which the Seabed Constructor had planned to do the search before suspending its procedures until February for maintenance issues.
The reaction of relatives
As soon as the news was known, there were mixed feelings among the mourners of the sailors. They lived it between relief and doubts. "It strikes me that it appeared on the last day of the search," the father of one of the crew members told Infobae.
Yolanda Mendiola, mother of crew member Leandro Cisneros, confirmed that the Navy promised to show the images first to the relatives and then to make them public.
"The commander (head of the Atlantic Naval Area and the naval base of Mar del Plata, captain of ship) Gabriel Atis was present and gave us the information," said Mendiola.
He explained that "this was a disaster yesterday all decompensated breasts, we were meeting in a room" and said "it was something exasperating because I started shouting and calling everyone" to know the news.
The woman requested that the remains of the submarine be recovered, said that the Ocean Infinity company is in a position to do so, although she indicated that "this depends on the president" Mauricio Macri.
Disappearance and search
The last reported location of the ARA San Juan was 240 nautical miles (432 kilometers) from the coast, in the San Jorge Gulf, southeast of the Valdés Peninsula and some 1,300 kilometers south of the Federal Capital.
From that moment, a large operation began, which mobilized several countries, with the contribution of aircraft, boats and radars.
This is how help came from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Russia and Norway.