Badung, Bali (ANTARA) - Parts of Indonesian submarine KRI Nanggala 402, which went missing north of Bali with 53 people on board earlier this week, were found floating in the sea on Saturday, the Navy disclosed.
"The components (that have been found) are torpedo tube-straighteners, coolant pipes wrap, a bottle of periscope lubricating oil, prayer mats, and heat-retaining sponges," the Navy’s Chief of Staff, Admiral Yudo Margono, said at a press conference here on Saturday.
The recovered parts or components are believed to belong to the submarine. The items would not have come out of the submarine had there been no pressure from outside or cracks, Margono said.
Based on the “authentic evidence” from KRI Nanggala-402, the status of the submarine has been changed from “sub miss” to “sub sunk”, which are military terms for “submarine missing” and “submarine sunk”, he confirmed.
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The recovered components were found floating in the sea, he disclosed. "These are parts or components of the ship. These items belong to KRI Nanggala, they are not owned by the public, and in a radius of 100 miles, no other ships have passed,” he added.
"Grease was usually used by the crew responsible for the periscope. They usually put it near the periscope as a back-up to anticipate dryness in the submarine when they have to grease the periscope," he explained.
Meanwhile, the coolant pipe wrap with Korean writing on it was a vertical overhaul, he said.
Built in Germany in 1977, KRI Nanggala was refitted in South Korea in 2012.
The submarine went missing early on Wednesday off the Indonesian island of Bali while carrying out torpedo drills.
Neighboring Singapore and Malaysia as well as the United States and Australia were among the nations who helped in the hunt for the submarine, with nearly two dozen warships deployed to scour a search zone covering about 10 square nautical miles. (INE)
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