Indonesian Navy Says Strong Underwater Wave Could Have Caused Submarine to Sink

Indonesia is still struggling to come to terms with the country’s recent submarine disaster, after 53 crew members on board the vessel lost their lives.

The KRI Nanggala 402 was carrying out a training exercise in waters north of Bali on 21 April when it vanished and lost contact.

Rescue teams later found the submarine broken up into three parts on the seabed, and presumed all the sailors on board to be dead.

Days later, the Indonesian authorities are still trying to piece together what happened, and they now have started finding answers.

Indonesian Navy Says Strong Underwater Wave Could Have Caused Submarine to Sink

The detection of a “internal solitary wave” on the day the Nanggala sank to the seabed may provide some answers as to what caused the submarine to descend so quickly.

Two senior Indonesian naval officers said a Japanese and European weather satellite detected the movement of a strong underwater wave in the spot where the submarine disappeared.

Since underwater waves, or internal waves, are hidden within the ocean as their name suggests, they may not be observable by the naked eye.

Internal waves may be brought on for a number of reasons, one of which is differences in densities in the water due to different temperatures or salinity.

Naval officers believe that differences in the density of waters off Bali and in the nearby Lombok Strait may have triggered a “massive movement” which was forceful enough to pull the submarine down.

If that is indeed what happened, the sailors couldn’t have done much to stop it.

“We are talking about two million to four million cubic metres of water hitting you,” Rear-Admiral Iwan Isnurwanto, a former submariner, said.

“Could anyone overcome that? The Nanggala submarine descended 13 metres and could have been caught in the internal wave.”

Rear-Admiral Muhammad Ali said that investigations are ongoing.

Officials dismissed claims that the accident was due to poor maintenance of the 44-year-old submarine, human error, or an attack by a foreign vessel.

What Happened

On that fateful day, the Nanggala began torpedo drills, a routine training exercise, at around 3:00am.

45 minutes after it sank into the water, contact with the submarine was lost.

Soon after news of the lost submarine broke, several countries offered to join the search effort, including Singapore.

When the authorities found the submarine hours later, it was cracked into three parts at 838 metres deep in the sea, at a depth where the pressure is so intense that it can split submarines.

An escape suit and other debris from the wreckage were also found floating in the dark waters.

Military officials declared all 53 crew members on board dead.

Now, memorials for the fallen seafarers continue to pour in. A video of the crew singing a “Goodbye” song weeks before the submarine went down has accumulated over a million views, with netizens taking to the comment section to express their condolences.

Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, will also hand out restitution to the families of the fallen tomorrow (29 Apr) at the Juanda naval air base in Surabaya. These families have also asked for the authorities to retrieve the bodies of the crew from the sea.

Feature Image: Aerial-motion / Shutterstock.com (Image is for illustration purposes only)