Missing Argentine sub may have IMPLODED after water flooded into its snorkel causing a battery to blow up
Hopes for survivors were quashed by reports of an explosion near where the ARA San Juan was last heard from on November 15
WATER entered an Argentine submarine hours before it went missing 13 days ago, a navy spokesman has said.
Hopes for survivors have been quashed amid reports there could have been implosion of the vessel after an explosion was detected where the ARA San Juan was last heard from on November 15.
Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said on Monday that water had entered through the snorkel, which is a device that allows a submarine to operate submerged while still taking in air from the surface.
The water went through the ventilation system to a battery connection tray in the prow and "caused a short circuit and the beginning of a fire, or smoke without flame", Balbi said.
He added that the captain later communicated by satellite phone that the problem had been contained.
"They had to electrically isolate the battery and continue sailing underwater to Mar del Plata using another battery circuit," Balbi said.
The San Juan, a German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine, was commissioned in 1985 and was most recently refitted in 2014.
Experts say the 44 sailors aboard had only enough oxygen to last up to 10 days if the sub remained intact but submerged.
The navy said last week that before the submarine went missing, the captain reported an electrical problem and the vessel was ordered to return to its base in the coastal city of Mar del Plata, about 250 miles southeast of Buenos Aires.
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Some family members have denounced the navy's response to the disappearance and the age and condition of the vessel.
The navy says more than a dozen countries are still helping search for the sub in area where the explosion was recorded about 270 miles off the coast of Argentina.
Argentian President Mauricio Macri has promised an investigation.