Argentine navy missing sub

That is amazing. Exactly 1 year after it disappeared they managed to find the wreck. Good work by Ocean Infinity and the crew on Seabed Constructor. Congratulation!!!

Here is a BBC report:

Great news to wake up to this morning, Thanks @Klaveness and @ombugge Congrats Ocean Infinity and Crew on Seabed Constructor. Now the big pay out.

Henning Klaveness posted first with this amazing news.
Now back to the Indian Ocean and the MH 370 search??

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Here is the latest from Argentine newspaper Clarine’:


Reasonably well handled by Google Translate.

The hull totally deformed from implosion:

Ocean Infinity statement:

https://oceaninfinity.com/locates_ARA_San_Juan

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The next step is to bring it to surface and recover the bodies that it contains. Not an easy task, but not impossible.

920 m. water depth is not prohibitively deep for modern salvors, but it is not cheap to assemble the necessary equipment in a remote part of the world, like off the coast of Patagonia, IF the Argentine Government can foot the high costs of such an operation.

Argentine Navy Captain Enrique Balbi presents images from the wreck of the submarine.

There would have to be a lot of political motivation behind such a move. We are talking about a really expensive operation, and to what ends? Given the state of the wreckage, they aren’t likely to learn anything by taking it apart. As body recoveries go, it’s extremely costly and carries the risk of returning unidentifiable remains.

At that depth after an implosion, any remains would be about as identifiable as the strawberries in a jar of jam. It’d be pointless.

Well, they’d be wearing clothes with name tags, and even strawberries can be ID’d by DNA analysis. However, once the reality of extracting the finely macerated paste of human remains from that jumble of steel hits home, and questions have to be answered about what to do with the bodies that are so thoroughly mixed together as to be indistinguishable, it would indeed appear to be utterly pointless.

A close friend of mine was an air force doctor and partook in numerous fighter accident scene investigations. According to him, one thing was the final memory of his friends in that state, but it was equally taxing to convince the next of kin not to view the bodies in the cases when a significant mass was recovered.

Argentinians being Argentinians, they are now angrily picketing the Navy, demanding action. According to prosecutor Sonia Krescher, “The families need to see the bodies”. Well, I think he’s mistaken, and so does former captain of the San Juan, Jorge Bergallo:

https://www.afp.com/es/noticias/3964/hallan-en-fondo-del-atlantico-submarino-argentino-san-juan-desaparecido-hace-un-ano-doc-1ax26y12

If they were able to repeat the Glomar Explorer K-129 recovery (but successfully this time) they might determine the sequence of the failure and maybe find a smoking gun. The first compartment to flood would be the least damaged.

As far as human remains go, the only “strawberries” would be those mechanically crushed by hull or equipment. Water pressure alone does not crush a body. Low temperature and low oxygen levels actually preserve the corpse.

Here is an article (a bit gross but relevant) that speaks to the subject with reference to recovery of Air France 447 victims.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi1lsrG7N3eAhUvrVkKHaz4AOwQjhx6BAgBEAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aafs.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FFate_of_Human_Remains.pdf&psig=AOvVaw2uPGzt-fVgPQvx0Tu6XxrL&ust=1542627150667170