LA PAZ, Bolivia — The blurry sonar image of an object deep in the South Atlantic was a sunken fishing vessel not an Argentine submarine that went missing on Nov. 15 with 44 crew members, the country’s navy said Saturday, ending hopes that the sub had been located. Rescuers had sent an unmanned Russian submersible to review the 60-meter-long object located at 477 metres (1,565 feet) below sea level. The missing submarine, the ARA San Juan, was roughly that length — 66 metres — and officials said the image was “unclear.” They sent the submersible to “visually verify” if it was indeed the San Juan. “It was confirmed that it wasn’t the submarine’s shell” but a sunken fishing vessel, Argentine navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said later Saturday. Argentina’s navy said on Thursday that it is no longer looking for survivors although a multinational operation will continue searching for the vessel.

Source: National Post December 02, 2017 21:11 UTC