IndonesiA: Submarine Found, 53 Crew Members Dead

The submarine that sank off the coast of Bali has been found, the Indonesian navy said on Sunday. The 53 crew members are all dead. The device, broken into three parts, had been missing since Wednesday. It was found on the seabed off Bali, according to Navy Chief of Staff Yudo Margono.

The day before, wreckage from the submarine had been recovered at sea, suggesting that the submersible may have broken up after sinking with 53 men on board. Hundreds of soldiers and twenty boats mobilized to locate the KRI Nanggala 402, a submersible forty years old of German construction. The navy then estimated at 72 hours the maximum reserves of oxygen available to crew members in the event of a power failure. This deadline was passed early Saturday morning, making their survival unlikely.

In question: an external pressure?

The debris found “could not have come out of the submarine without external pressure or without damage to its torpedo launcher system,” said Yudo Margono, spokesman for the Indonesian navy, during a conference press release this Saturday. Among the items recovered was a piece of the torpedo system and a bottle of grease used to lubricate the periscope of the submarine, as well as a prayer mat, used by Muslims.

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