One of Argentina's submarines apparently is missing. You can read about it here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/11/18/a-submarine-has-vanished-launching-a-frantic-search-for-44-people-on-board/
As a former submariner, my heart goes out to her officers and crew and their families. I think I know exactly what they are going through.
I also served on a "old" submarine (two of them in fact). The first was in danger of sinking on several occasions, and I personally helped keep it from going down more than once.
If they were having trouble in rough seas, they're screwed. Subs don't ride well on the surface in rough seas, and if they were taking on water and lost power it's very likely the ship has been lost.
Failure in the battery system is not a good sign:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-argentina-submarine-search-20172021-story.html
Air and electricity are crucial to the survival of a submarine, and battery failure might mean the sub now has neither of those power sources. If they are on the bottom, they're not coming up on their own. And making a free ascent from that depth (650 feet) is impossible.
It looks like the sub indeed may be lost:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/23/explosion-detected-near-site-of-missing-argentinian-submarine-navy-confirms
If water entered the vent system through the snorkel, then it's likely they could not have snorkeled later without the same thing happening. Non-nuke subs cannot run indefinitely under water on just the battery, in this case only half the usual batteries. Having been in a similar situation before, I would guess they got low on power, tried to snorkel in heavy seas, took on more water, and had a battery explosion.
ReplyDeleteFace it ... they're dead. And it's a shame the Argentine navy concealed this info until now.
Old subs are NOT safe. I can attest to that fact, having sailed on two of them. And don't believe when they say the captain certified the ship was ready to sail when they started the voyage. It is COMMON for a sub to get underway with dangerous equipment problems just so an operational schedule can be met.