Rescuers are scouring the Bali Sea for a submarine that disappeared this week. Officials say if the crew is still alive, they re expected to run out of oxygen by Saturday.
The navy chief said the other vessels that had been involved in the drill including 21 warships, two submarines and five planes had joined the frantic search.
If the submarine had sunk too deep, however, the outlook was grim, according to Indonesian defence analyst Connie Rahakundini Bakrie.
“If it lies at that depth I have to say with a heavy heart that the steel structure of the vessel won’t be strong,” she said.
Former submariner Frank Owen, who is secretary of the Submarine Institute of Australia, said another complicating factor was there were more people on board than the normal crew capacity of 34 and oxygen reserves would be depleted faster than usual.
He said rescuers found an unidentified object with high magnetism at a depth of 50 to 100 meters (165 to 330 feet) and that officials hope it’s the submarine.
The navy believes the submarine sank to a depth of 600-700 meters (2,000-2,300 feet), much deeper than its estimated collapse depth.
Ahn Guk-hyeon, an official from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, which refitted the vessel in 2009-2012, said the submarine would collapse if it goes deeper than around 200 meters (655 feet) because of pressure. He said his company upgraded much of the submarine’s internal structures and systems but lacks recent information about the vessel.