Missing sub crew families ask Argentina to continue rescue
The navy said late on Thursday that the search was no longer considered a rescue mission but it would continue looking for the missing sub
Families of 44 crew members aboard a submarine that has been lost for 16 days in the South Atlantic demanded on Friday that Argentina reverse its decision to stop looking for survivors.
The navy said late on Thursday that the search was no longer considered a rescue mission but it would continue looking for the missing sub with the help of other countries.
Experts said the crew only had up to 10 days of oxygen if the sub remained intact under the sea. Hope of finding survivors had also been crushed after an explosion was detected near the time and place where the ARA San Juan went missing on November 15.
But relatives of the sailors met Argentina’s Defence Minister and the navy chief Friday at the sub’s naval base in the coastal city of Mar del Plata and made a desperate plea to carry on with the rescue. Some held pictures of their loved ones. After the meeting, others clapped their hands and yelled out: “busqueda y rescate!” or “search and rescue!”
“Just as they took them with them, they must now bring them back to us,” Marcela Moyano, wife of crew member Hernan Rodriguez, told reporters.