ARGENTINA: Navy Ends Search For Submarine Survivors

(RTTNews) - The Argentinean Navy discontinued the search for survivors of the submarine ARA San Juan, which disappeared 15 days ago.

"There was no rescue of people. There is no hope that the 44 crew members are alive," said the captain Enrique Balbi, the Navy's spokesman.

The vessel is still yet to be found, and the search for the sunken submarine will continue, he said at a press conference. However, if the vessel is more than 500 meters deep, all operations will be terminated.

In the last hours, several of the ships that participated in the search in the Gulf of San Jorge returned to Comodoro Rivadavia, including the Atlantis of the United States, the Sophie Siem of Norway and the Didi-K of Uruguay.

Henceforth, the international agreement that was in place while searching for the crew has ended, so the nations that had been collaborating with Argentina will decide for themselves if they continue to try to recover the remains of the San Juan.

Searches for the San Juan started on November 15, when the submarine reported operational failures.

The Organization of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBTO) recorded that same day in the afternoon an "unusual signal near the last known position" of the San Juan, coinciding with the noise of an explosion.