Argentina has accepted help from Russia in the search for a military submarine that went missing with 44 crew in the southern Atlantic a week ago.<\/p>\n
President Mauricio Macri said the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, had phoned him to offer to deploy a survey vessel and crew with experience of similar operations.<\/p>\n
More than a dozen countries, including the US, are taking part in the search.<\/p>\n
The ARA San Juan vanished after it reported an electric breakdown.<\/p>\n
It last made contact with naval officers on land last Wednesday.<\/p>\n
A navy spokesman, Captain Enrique Balbi, said the search had now entered “a critical phase,” amid fears that oxygen supplies may be running low.<\/p>\n
He later told Argentine journalists that the Navy was investigating reports of a loud noise detected in the area a few hours after the ARA San Juan went missing.<\/p>\n
He described it as a “hydro-acoustic anomaly” and refused to confirm whether there had been an explosion.<\/p>\n
The whole country has been following the news closely, hoping that the sub is located before it runs out of oxygen.<\/p>\n
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Peru, South Africa, Uruguay and the UK are among the countries that have sent either ships or planes to help with the search.<\/p>\n
The US Navy has deployed two underwater vehicles which use sonar to create images of the sea floor.<\/p>\n
The ARA San Juan was returning from a routine mission to Ushuaia, near the southern-most tip of South America, when it reported an “electrical breakdown”.<\/p>\n
According to naval commander Gabriel Galeazzi, the submarine surfaced and reported the breakdown, which Capt Galeazzi described as a “short circuit” in the sub’s batteries.<\/p>\n
The sub was ordered to cut its mission short and return to the naval base in Mar del Plata immediately.<\/p>\n
According to navy spokesman Enrique Balbi, the captain of the ARA San Juan contacted the naval base once more after reporting the problem.<\/p>\n
In the message, he reportedly said that the problem had been adequately fixed and that the sub would submerge and proceed towards Mar del Plata naval base.<\/p>\n
The last contact was made at 07:30 local time (10:30 GMT) on Wednesday 15 November. It is not known what happened to the sub after that contact.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina has accepted help from Russia in the search for a military submarine that went missing with 44 crew in the southern Atlantic a week ago. President Mauricio Macri said the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, had phoned him to offer to deploy a survey vessel and crew with experience of similar operations. More than a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":376661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[14845,910],"yoast_head":"\n