Argentina releases first images of the submarine San Juan - lost a year ago at 3,000 feet deep with all its crew
One of the first images posted by the Argentina navy showed the forward section of the sub's hull, made with special 33 mm steel, with torpedo tubes visible. The 82-foot-long and 23-foot-wide section was found in a single piece, though the water pressure appeared to have deformed and compressed it.
"It is the habitable sector where the batteries and all the systems and equipment that the submarine has are found," the navy said.
Before the sub's last contact on November 15, 2017, the captain reported that water had entered through a snorkel and caused one of the batteries to short circuit, though he said it had been contained.
The aft section of the sub, including its propeller, was also spotted by Ocean Infinity's submersible.
As was the mast, or sail, of the sub.
'A series of investigations to find the whole truth'
The sub was returning to its base at Mar de Plata on Argentina's northeast coast when contact was lost. The German-made sub had been commissioned in the mid-1980s and underwent a retrofit between 2008 and 2014.
There still is no information about the 44 crew members who were aboard the sub when it sank. Argentina President Mauricio Macri, who decreed three days of morning, said "a series of investigations to find the whole truth" would be opened.
Argentina officials have said the sub could have imploded hours after its final contact, when the pressure in the water overcame the hull's ability to resist.
The wreckage of the sub appeared to be scattered over a 262-foot-by-328-foot area — an indication the it "could have imploded very close to the bottom," Argentine navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said.
Argentina lacks 'modern technology' to recover the sub.
The sub was found near where the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, an international monitoring agency, said on November 15, 2017, that two of its hydroacoustic stations "detected an unusual signal" near the sub's last known position.
Argentina's navy said the signal, which sounded like an explosion, could have been caused by a "concentration of hydrogen" triggered by the battery problem reported by the captain.
On Saturday, hours after the discovery was confirmed, Defense Minister Oscar Aguad said Argentina lacks "modern technology" capable of "verifying the seabed" in order to recover the ARA San Juan.
'If they sent him off, I want them to bring him back to me.'
Visibility in the water where the sub was found is also very low, due to salinity and turbulence.
The depth, distance from the coast, and nature of the seabed would make any recovery effort logistically challenging and expensive, likely requiring Argentina to commission another navy or private firm to carry out that work — complicating the Macri government's commitment to economic austerity measures.
The navy's statement that it was unable to recover the sub angered families of the crew, who demanded the government recover those lost aboard.
"We do know they can get it out because Ocean Infinity told us they can, that they have equipment," Luis Antonio Niz, father of crew member Luis Niz, told the Associated Press. "If they sent him off, I want them to bring him back to me."
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