Lost Argentine Submarine Found One Year After Disappearance

The Argentinian attack submarine was lost with all hands one year ago.


The ARA San Juan, an Argentinian submarine that went missing one year ago has been found. The submarine was discovered in an undersea ravine more than 3,000 feet deep by the Seabed Constructor, a ship hired to locate the lost sub. The prevailing theory is the submarine was the victim of a fire that damaged its batteries, leading to an underwater explosion that eventually sank the sub.

Image of the San Juan’s six torpedo tubes as discovered by the Ocean Infinity.
Argentine Navy

Argentine Navy officials announced the discovery of the submarine on November 17th, sharing photographs taken of the sub by unmanned undersea vehicles. The submarine is scattered in pieces on the ocean floor, with the bow section, tail, and propeller all blown off the submarine.


The San Juan, one of Argentina’s three diesel electric attack submarines, disappeared on November 15th, 2017. The San Juan was a German-made TR-1700 class submarines and one of the fastest diesel electric boats in the world. The submarines had six 533-millimeter torpedo tubes in the bow and could sail to a maximum depth of 980 feet. On the day it went missing, San Juan reported water had entered the submarine’s air snorkel, causing a battery fire. The submarine made one last communication, reporting it was proceeding on course, when the Argentine Navy lost contact with it.

At 10:31 a.m. local time, a monitoring station that listens for nuclear explosions recorded an underwater “impulsive event” at latitude: -46.12 deg; longitude: -59.69 deg which is in the vicinity of the last known location of the ARA San Juan. Despite an intensive search by navy forces including the US Navy, the submarine’s remains were never found.

ARA San Juan’s sail, blown off the submarine in the implosion.
Argentine Navy

On November 17th, two months after it had begun searching, the seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity had a promising sonar contact on the bottom of the South Atlantic. The company explained that it had several such contacts, but that there had been many natural geologic formations that resembled the San Juan in both shape and size. The ship leading the search, Seabed Constructor, sent unmanned underwater vehicles to investigate the contact and returned with 67,000 photos of the missing submarine.

Source: Reuters

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