Argentina fires head of navy over submarine tragedy

 

Signs in support of the 44 crew members of the missing at sea ARA San Juan submarine hang from a fence as people come out of the Argentine Navy headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

 

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina fired the head of its navy a month after a submarine disappeared in the South Atlantic with 44 crew members onboard, a government spokesman said on Saturday.

 

Letting go of Navy Admiral Marcelo Eduardo Hipólito Srur was the first known disciplinary action taken by President Mauricio Macri's administration since contact was lost with the ARA San Juan on Nov. 15.

 

"It was decided to remove him," a government spokesman said.

 

Families of the crew members criticized Macri's government for not clearly communicating with them and for abandoning rescue efforts.

 

The navy said on Nov. 27 that water that entered the submarine's snorkel caused its battery to short-circuit before it went missing. The navy had previously said international organizations detected a noise that could have been the submarine's implosion the same day contact was lost.

 

Hope of rescuing survivors was abandoned on Nov. 30. The navy said it searched for double the amount of time the submarine would have had oxygen. An international search for the submarine is still underway.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-12-17

whats the logic in that ? well i suppose the government has got to blame someone

That's Thai logic now becoming an export commodity.

Very sad accident, a terrible way to go, here"s hoping the recorded implosion took them quickly

7 hours ago, mercman24 said:

whats the logic in that ? well i suppose the government has got to blame someone

Always wondered why they do this.

Worked on one project where an engineer ( ex-pat ) screwed up in the field and caused a lot of expensive damage to equipment by disregarding safe working rules. Luckily no-one was hurt.

He ( the engineer ) was fired, understandably, but what surprised me was the Project Manager also being fired. He was 30 kilometres away at the time on another part of the project carrying out a safety inspection/audit with the HSSE department.

???

Seems to me that even though they have not found the sub yet, they have a good idea what happened, and if he had say over ruled on some important work on say the grounds of cost then better sacking him before the