Skandi-Patagonia

The "Cabo de Hornos" of the Chilean Navy and the "Skandi Patagonia", operating for the French oil company Total, were in the area where the loss of the ARA "San Juan" on Nov 15, which has been confirmed early in the morning of Nov 24 by the Argentine Navy, has occurred. The Navy had gathered the relatives of the crew to communicate, unofficially, the sad news of the death of the 44 crew of the submarine. The Argentine Navy had analyzed a 'hydroacoustic anomaly' that was detected in the Atlantic area where the last known position of the submarine had been fixed, a noise that was recorded almost three hours after the Last communication with the ship in the San Jorge Gulf area, 432 kilometers off the coast of Argentine Patagonia. The United States - one of the 13 countries that collaborate in the search for the ssubmarine - had requested data of different agencies that are dedicated to gathering hydroacoustic events around the world. After collecting all the information and doing a thorough centralized analysis in the United States the official indication was that the anomaly was coinciding with the area of ​​the last known position of the submarine, about 30 miles north of that position, on the way to Mar del Plata to where the ship was underway from Ushuaia. The hydroacoustic anomaly and the report sent by the US Navy has been reviewed in Argentina and sent to other international organizations that have confirmed that it was an underwater explosion in the area where the submarine had been. The impact of the news on the relatives of the crew has been terrible. Many of them have left the meeting complaining about the management of the situation by the Government and the Argentine Navy. The relatives wondered how it is possible that they were kept in suspense for a week, mobilizing the operation if the data to locate the "San Juan" were available from the same day the disaster occurred. On the other hand, the relatives continued emphasizing that the crew was sentenced from the moment in which the submarine went to sea due to the poor state of maintenance in which it was. Argentina is one of the countries in Latin America that least invests in defense which led the Armed Forces to a state of neglect that is now being paid.