There are 53 on board the missing submarine.
HONG KONG – An Indonesian submarine with 53 on board is feared missing after the country’s military lost contact with it on Wednesday during an early morning torpedo drill in the waters north of Bali.
The 42-year-old German-made submarine, KRI Nanggala-402, is part of the 2nd Fleet of the Indonesian Navy and conducted naval drilling drills that were to culminate on Thursday.
Indonesia’s military chief Marshal Hadi told local outlets that he has asked Singapore and Australia for help, with whom Jakarta has signed submarine rescue deals. They are expected to join some of the Indonesian warships that have already been sent to the area to assist in the rescue operations.
Tjahjanto is expected to travel to Bali on Thursday morning, where he was originally scheduled to supervise the final exercises, but will now provide an update on the search for the KRI Nanggala.
Tjahjanto told local outlet Kompas that the submarine disappeared in waters about 60 miles north of the island of Bali at around 3am local time, but told Reuters they lost contact around 4:30 am.
“Just when the diving permit was issued, contact was immediately lost,” Hadi told Kompas.
A source in the Indonesian Navy told ABC News that Nanggala-402 was last in contact around 3 a.m., when it was cleared to dive. The Navy expected the crew to check in before resurfacing on site around 6am for a flotilla drill.
According to the source, the surface crew became more and more concerned every hour of contact until, according to Janes, a defense news outlet, Indonesian armed forces sent an emergency call to the International Submarine Escape and Rescue Liaison Office at approximately 9:37 a.m. local time. to report the submarine missing in the belief that it has sunk.
According to Reuters, the 1,395-ton ship was built in 1978 and underwent a two-year retrofit in South Korea in 2012.