Indonesian submarine missing

[MartG]

Hope they locate it quickly, and that the crew are still alive

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56829278

[MBBlat]

It depends how deep the water is where they sunk and if the people tank is still intact.

Unfortunately historic survival rates for subs that don’t come to the surface are not good.

[MartG]

MBBlat said:

It depends how deep the water is where they sunk and if the people tank is still intact.

I've seen reports that the depth in the area is 3x the sub's crush depth

[DeltonaS]

Yes, they think it's on the bottom at 700. Sub is rated at 200-250m.

Reports say they have oxygen until saturday. Hope the Australians have the kit and enough time to get them out of there.

[thewarlock]

They were out test firing torpedos, and an oil slick has been spotted nearby.

Don't think this one is going to have a happy ending I'm afraid. The German type 209s are good boats, but they're old, this one's been in service for 40 years already.

[Eric Mc]

I wonder if they torpedoed themselves?

[Jake899]

Now is not the time for idle theorising, the facts will become clear. Now is the time to spare a thought for those brave lost sailors and their poor families. What a terrible risk submariners take.

[Eric Mc]

Jake899 said:

Now is not the time for idle theorising, the facts will become clear. Now is the time to spare a thought for those brave lost sailors and their poor families. What a terrible risk submariners take.

This call to barr discussion soon after an accident is always a weird one.

I'm always interested in the technical reasons why things go wrong.

If we aren't allow to discuss the possibilities right now, do you have a future date where it would be OK to start?

[Zetec-S]

Eric Mc said:

This call to barr discussion soon after an accident is always a weird one.

I'm always interested in the technical reasons why things go wrong.

If we aren't allow to discuss the possibilities right now, do you have a future date where it would be OK to start?

Exactly... I think the context of the discussion and where is takes place makes a big difference.

Would it be appropriate on an internet forum set up to support the families of the crew... no, that would obviously be insensitive. On a UK car forum where it's highly unlikely anyone has a personal connection to the incident... why not?

[Parbold milkperson]

Eric Mc said:

I wonder if they torpedoed themselves?

That comment inverypoor taste I suggest.

[mcdjl]

Parbold milkperson said:

Eric Mc said:

I wonder if they torpedoed themselves?

That comment inverypoor taste I suggest.

Why? If they were firing torpedoes its a possibility: https://interestingengineering.com/the-submarines-...

[thewarlock]

mcdjl said:

Why? If they were firing torpedoes its a possibility: https://interestingengineering.com/the-submarines-...

It'a quite unlikely.

More likely a watertight integrity failure; a tube door that's not functioned properly or similar, that's led to flooding and sinking. Possibly to a depth enough to cause the pressure hull to collapse, which might explain the oil slick.

Equally, it's possible they're all alive, and they've let some fuel out to help people find them, or even that the oil slick is entirely unrelated.

We have no idea just now.

[peterperkins]

mcdjl said:

Parbold milkperson said:

Eric Mc said:

I wonder if they torpedoed themselves?

That comment inverypoor taste I suggest.

Why? If they were firing torpedoes its a possibility: https://interestingengineering.com/the-submarines-...

Indeed it's not that uncommon and during the early development of homing torpedoes it was a serious risk.

[mcdjl]

thewarlock said:

It'a quite unlikely.

More likely a watertight integrity failure; a tube door that's not functioned properly or similar, that's led to flooding and sinking. Possibly to a depth enough to cause the pressure hull to collapse, which might explain the oil slick.

Equally, it's possible they're all alive, and they've let some fuel out to help people find them, or even that the oil slick is entirely unrelated.

We have no idea just now.

Agreed, but we did it deliberately (well not quite) recently: https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-nuclear-su...
I'd hope that they were inert and more than one person checked the depth programming.....

[Parbold milkperson]

Maybe they were sub-standard

[Eric Mc]

Parbold milkperson said:

Eric Mc said:

I wonder if they torpedoed themselves?

That comment inverypoor taste I suggest.

I wasn't trying to be funny. Accidents caused by wayward homing torpedoes have happened a few times over the history of submarine technology. And if they were carrying out torpedo trials, it's a distinct possibility.

[Simpo Two]

Parbold milkperson said:

Maybe they were sub-standard

Poor taste!

So, we can't conjecture on the cause, and we can't suggest that the torpedo circled....

[GliderRider]

A dilemma for all nations involved in a search like this, is that, whilst they want to help, doing so successfully can give away not just the detection capabilities of their submarine detection equipment, but more importantly it demonstrates the operator's ability to get the best out of the equipment's idiosyncrasies seeing through the thermoclines and scattering which diminish the quality of the sonar return signal.

[FourWheelDrift]

Simpo Two said:

Parbold milkperson said:

Maybe they were sub-standard

Poor taste!

So, we can't conjecture on the cause, and we can't suggest that the torpedo circled....

I don't think that's possible, that happened to gyro steering mechanism torpedoes that are set before launch and activate after, the Nanggala had wire guided German SUT torpedoes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakra-class_submarin...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUT_torpedo

[Simpo Two]

On a more serious note, I'm surprised submarines don't incorporate some kind of escape pod.