Missing submarine — hope fades as oxygen deadline passes
Indonesian submarine only had enough oxygen for three days after going missing.
Hope of rescuing the 53 people aboard the missing Indonesian submarine, KRI Nanggala 402, are fading as the submarine’s oxygen reserves are believed to have now run out.
Efforts to find the submarine which went missing off the north coast of Bali will now focus on retrieving the vessel.
Hundreds of personnel from several nations took part in the search and rescue mission after the vessel lost contact on Wednesday as it was conducting a torpedo drill with the head of the Indonesian submarine fleet aboard.
The submarine was built in Germany in the late’70s, joined the Indonesian fleet in 1981 and underwent a re-fit in South Korea in 2012.
The vessel has a maximum safe operating depth of up to 500 metres and experts say she could have foundered in water as deep as 1,500 metres, giving her crew no chance of survival.
Berda Asmara, the wife of crew member Guntur Ari Prasetyo, 39, told a news conference:
“I hope they will be found alive. We had a video call. He told me that he would go sailing and asked me to pray for him,” she said of the last time they spoke.
“I haven’t received any update yet, [the] rescue is still underway. I am praying that there will be a miracle for my husband and other Nanggala crew,” said Ekhan Retno Asih Primadani, the wife of lieutenant commander Eko Firmanto.
