The search for a missing submarine

[Music] the lives of 53 hang in the balance after an indonesian submarine went missing early on wednesday and now singapore has dispatched a highly specialized submarine rescue vessel to join in the search the mv swift rescue is currently heading towards waters north of bali and is expected to arrive on april 24th the kri nangala 402 was carrying out a torpedo drill there when it lost communication on april 21st at 3 am the nagala 402 began diving to 13 meters to prepare for the firing of a torpedo at 3 46 am its flashing identification light dimmed before disappearing altogether attempts to contact the vessel were met with silence while its periscope vanished from view at 4 17 am a helicopter was sent to find the submarine it was unsuccessful and a full search effort was launched at 6 46 am by 3 pm the republic of singapore navy received the call from the indonesian navy to assist in the search within the german-built submarine are 49 crew members one ship commander and three weapon specialists time is running out for the submarine to be found it has enough oxygen for 72 hours following its disappearance this means that the people inside will run out of air by 3 am on april 24th another concern is that the nangala might have sunk too deep for the crew to be saved an official from the south korean firm that carried out the nagalas 2009 to 2012 refit has said that the vessel's hull would not be able to withstand the pressure if it sank deeper than 200 meters the indonesian navy believes that the submarine could have sunk to a depth of 600 to 700 meters while the odds look stacked against the submarine's crew mr frank owen secretary of the submarine institute of australia is hoping for a better outcome the worst case is that they've sunk if they've sunk it would have been a hasty quick death because they they they wouldn't have uh they'd have gone past their collapse depth and the the hull collapses very quickly um it's it's possible that the hull is strong enough to withstand that in which case their oxygen supply will run out by saturday which is the advice of the indonesian chief of navy and and fundamentally they will go to sleep because as the carbon dioxide builds up and the oxygen level drops basically they'll fall asleep and they won't wake up but so it'll either be a peaceful death um falling asleep or it'll be a a rapid one um where they uh they're just compressed by the hull collapsing or they could it could be that they they're just trying to get back to the surface so i'm i remain hopeful but the circumstances could well be quite difficult for this situation this is mv swift rescue's first submarine search mission since she was launched in 2008. the vessel was previously involved in searches for malaysia airlines flight mh370 in 2014 and air asia flight qz8501 in 2015 mr owen who was involved in the construction of envy swift rescue and has conducted submarine rescue courses on board says the ship's biggest asset is its ability to mobilize quickly compared to other submarine rescue craft time is the greatest enemy of submarine rescue and this is where swift rescue is in a good position because they don't have to gather their forces and their equipment put it onto trucks bring it to the ship load it onto the ship weld it to the ship have all of those welds checked by surveyors and then sail it's custom designed as a submarine rescue vessel so it has embarked upon it hyperbaric rescue chambers it has a special system for recovering the rescue vehicle and keeping it on board so in many submarine rescue systems the system is kept in a shore facility and then mobilized to a ship when it's needed in the case of swift rescue it's kept on board it's always ready to sail and so if there is an accident there's a minimal time for swift rescue to be able to go to sea to conduct the operation aside from singapore other countries joining in the search mission include malaysia australia india and the united states you

Channel: The Straits Times

Views: 1,038,933

Keywords: indonesia, navy, search and rescue, submarine, Nanggala, indonesia submarine, indonesia submarine missing, indonesian navy, kri nanggala 402, kri nanggala-402, bali

Id: k3whWC1CCWM

Length: 5min 1sec (301 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 23 2021