The KRI Nanggala 402 lost contact with navy authorities around 4:00am on the morning of April 21, soon after it was given permission to dive for a torpedo firing exercise. Will Indonesia be able to retrieve the ship from the bottom of the sea? Or there could have been human error."īut short of retrieving the submarine or its parts from the seabed, investigators may never be able to determine the exact cause of the tragedy. "There could have been a fire, something particularly feared by submariners in their enclosed environment. "It does not take much loss of buoyancy for a submarine to lose control of its depth. "Causes could include a material or mechanical failure leading to catastrophic flooding of one or more compartments," he wrote in The Conversation this week. Retired Australian Rear Admiral James Goldrick said "material failure" is the most likely explanation for the sub's loss. It was due for another refit last year but this was delayed because of the pandemic. The 1,395-tonne KRI Nanggala-402 was built in Germany in 1978. The KRI Nanggala 402 was built in 1978 and was last overhauled in 2012, almost a decade ago. Many other experts point to metal fatigue from cracks or corrosion, and the sub's age, as more likely causes. Officials say the sub was also designed to carry up to eight torpedoes - weighing about one tonne each - but only had four at the time of the disaster. "The sub was originally for 33 personnel, then it was modernised to comply with our need to have 50 personnel onboard," Admiral Iwan said. They also deny that the sub was overloaded, a theory suggested because there were 53 crew on board but only 34 beds, instead arguing that the crew were divided into three shifts and took turns to sleep. Some have suggested that the sub was hit by a missile from a foreign vessel, or even experienced a power blackout.īut naval officials say the submarine was still detected as it began its dive for the torpedo drill, and "the lights were on" - meaning there was only a small chance that an electrical blackout was to blame. "The wave was about two nautical miles and the volume of water was about two to four million cubic litres."Īdmiral Iwan explained an internal wave could render the crew helpless in the face of nature.ĭebris from the submarine was found in the waters during a search operation. "It moved up from the bottom to the north, and there's a trench between two mountains," said Rear Admiral Iwan Isnurwanto, Commander of the Indonesian Navy Command and Staff School. Indeed, navy officials say images from Japan's Himawari 8 satellite, as well as European satellite Sentinel showed there were large underwater waves that coincided with the KRI Nanggala 402 sinking. Because an internal solitary wave occurred at that time in the north of Bali," he told Indonesian media this week. "Our suspicion falls on natural conditions. Rear Admiral Muhammad Ali, a former commander of KRI Nanggala 402, and now an assistant of planning and budgeting in the Indonesian navy, said an internal wave was effectively "a strong current which can drag the sub vertically so it would sink faster than it should." Internal waves can look like ripples on the ocean's surface, like this satellite image shot by NASA in 2013. The Lombok Strait between the islands of Bali and Lombok is said to be famous for generating intense internal waves on an almost fortnightly basis. The sub was passing through dangerous waters Many theories have been put forward but authorities now say there is evidence an underwater wave - that can exert an intense vertical pull below the sea surface - occurred in the Bali Sea around the very time the submarine disappeared last Wednesday morning. The vessel sank to a depth of 838 metres, far beyond the reach of rescuers.Īs the personal effects of crew members floated up and the oxygen supply on board slowly dwindled, officials said there was no chance anyone survived. Indonesian navy officials suspect an internal solitary wave, known to occur in the seas around Bali, may have caused the sinking of KRI Nanggala 402, and the loss of its 53 crew. As an Indonesian navy submarine crewed by 53 men glided below the surface of the Bali Sea during a routine training exercise, it may have been hit by an invisible but powerful force that dragged them to the deep.
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