Argentina's navy said Friday it has launched a search operation for one of its submarines with a crew of 44 which has been reported missing off the south coast. The navy said it had not had contact with the submarine, the San Juan, for 48 hours.
"We have not been able to find, or have visual or radar communication with the submarine," navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told a news conference. The TR-1700 class diesel electric submarine had been returning from a routine mission to Ushuaia near the southernmost tip of South America, to its base at Mar del Plata, around 400 kilometers (240 miles) south of Buenos Aires.
The San Juan's last contact with the navy command was on Wednesday morning, Balbi said. Argentina said it launched an air and sea search on Thursday, involving a destroyer and two corvettes. An initial search in an area around the sub's last known position, some 430 kilometers off the southeastern Valdez peninsula, provided no clues. Balbi said the search was hampered "because it was carried out at night and in bad meteorological conditions prevailing in the area of operations."
The navy denied a press report that there may have been a fire onboard. Balbi appealed for caution. "I don't want to dramatize the issue. We're lacking communication and don't know what happened," he said.
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