Sound described as ‘abnormal’ was heard on day that contact was lost, navy spokesman confirms 
 
 The families of the crew of a missing Argentinian navy submarine have reacted with grief and then anger to the possibility that an explosion hit the submarine around the time it sent its last signal on 15 November. 
 
 An abnormal sound detected in the South Atlantic ocean was “consistent with an explosion”, the navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said. The navy did not have enough information to say what the cause of the explosion could have been or whether the vessel – the ARA San Juan – might have been attacked, he said. 
 
 Relatives of the submarine’s 44 crew members, camped out at a naval base in the coastal city of Mar del Plata, had been largely optimistic before Thursday’s announcement, which prompted cries of anguish and calls for authorities to be held to account. 
 
 
 
 Footage of relatives collapsing to the pavement as uniformed navy servicemen embraced each other was broadcast on live television, sending shockwaves across Argentina. 
 
 A huge sea and air hunt is being conducted for the San Juan, a German-built, diesel- and electric-powered submarine that was launched in 1983. Some relatives have questioned authorities for letting the crew navigate on an ageing submarine - criticism that has highlighted the armed forces’ dwindling resources since the end of a military dictatorship in the 1980s. 
 
 Authorities have said the level of maintenance, not the age, was what mattered, and that the vessel was in good condition. It received a midlife upgrade in 2009 in which its four diesel engines and electric propeller engines were replaced, according to the specialist publication Jane’s Sentinel. 
 
 “They sent a piece of shit out to navigate,” said Itatí Leguizamón, the wife of the San Juan’s sonar operator Germán Suárez. “We don’t believe they didn’t know from before. They’re perverse bastards who’ve had us here for a week.” 
 
 Leguizamón said naval officers had not been able to finish reading relatives the latest report because of the angry reaction. She claimed her husband had told her about an incident in 2014 when the San Juan had been unable to surface. 
 
 
 
 Elena Alfaro, another relative, told TN news network: “I feel like I’m at a wake. I also feel time passing and time is crucial.” 
 
 One relative yelled “they killed my brother” as he drove off after Thursday’s announcement. 
 
 Argentina’s centre-right president, Mauricio Macri, has criticised naval commanders over their handling of the crisis. According to the Infobae website, Macri’s defence minister, Oscar Aguad, only learned that the submarine was missing when he read about it in the press. 
 
 Macri took office last year promising to increase the military budget. 
 
 “I know the state has ignored you for years, abandoned you, and that’s created problems in terms of budget, equipment and infrastructure,” Macri said at an Army Day ceremony in June 2016 in which he promised to improve military salaries and renew armaments. 
 
 On Thursday the navy received information from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), an international body that runs a global network of listening posts designed to check for secret atomic blasts. 
 
 The Vienna-based agency, which has monitoring stations equipped with devices including underwater microphones that scan the oceans for soundwaves, said in a statement that two of its stations had detected an unusual signal near where the submarine went missing. But the agency was more guarded about whether this was caused by an explosion. 
 
 The noise was detected in an area where Argentina’s continental shelf drops off abruptly from a depth of 200 metres to anything up to 5,000 metres, Horacio Tobías, a naval expert, told the TN news network. 
 
 The San Juan would be difficult to find if it has sunk beyond the continental shelf. The existence of other sunken ships in that area of the sea floor could increase the difficulty of identifying the remains of the submarine. 
 
 With the seven-day limit on the San Juan’s oxygen reserves having been reached on Wednesday morning, what hopes that remained were pinned on the submarine having been able to replenish its oxygen supply by surfacing at some point during the past week. 
 
 Relatives have had their hopes raised and then dashed on a number of occasions already. Underwater sounds detected in the first days of the search by two Argentinian search ships were determined to have originated from a sea creature, not the vessel. Satellite signals were also determined to be false alarms. 
 
 Russia was the latest navy to volunteer to a multinational sea search, sending an oceanographic research ship as the operation shifted focus from rescue to recovery. 
 
 “I feel cheated,” said Leguizamón. “They say they only found out now, but how can they have only found out now?” 
 
 She said other relatives were also furious. “They’re tearing up everything in there,” she told reporters outside the naval base. “How would you react if you were lied to? 
 
 “They [the navy] didn’t use the word ‘dead’ but that’s the logical conclusion.” 
 
 Reuters contributed to this story ||||| A woman touches a poster, overlaid with snapshots of Celso Oscar Vallejo, one of the crew members of the missing ARA San Juan, that hangs on a fence enclosing the Mar del Plata Naval Base, in Argentina,... (Associated Press) 
 
 A woman touches a poster, overlaid with snapshots of Celso Oscar Vallejo, one of the crew members of the missing ARA San Juan, that hangs on a fence enclosing the Mar del Plata Naval Base, in Argentina, Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017. More help was arriving in a multinational search Thursday for the Argentine... (Associated Press) 
 
 MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (AP) — An apparent explosion occurred near the time and place an Argentine submarine went missing, the country's navy reported Thursday, prompting relatives of the vessel's 44 crew members to burst into tears and some to say they had lost hope of a rescue. 
 
 Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said the search will continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan, despite the evidence of an explosion and with more than a week having passed since the submarine disappeared. It was originally scheduled to arrive Monday at Argentina's Mar del Plata Navy Base. 
 
 The U.S. Navy and an international nuclear test-ban monitoring organization said a "hydro-acoustic anomaly" was produced just hours after the navy lost contact with the sub on Nov. 15. It was near the submarine's last known location. 
 
 "According to this report, there was an explosion," Balbi told reporters. "We don't know what caused an explosion of these characteristics at this site on this date." 
 
 The navy spokesman described the "anomaly" as "singular, short, violent and non-nuclear." 
 
 Relatives of the crew who had gathered at the Mar del Plata base to receive psychological counseling broke into tears and hugged each other after they received the news. Some fell on their knees or clung to a fence crowded with blue-and-white Argentine flags, rosary beads and messages of support. Most declined to speak, while a few others lashed out in anger at the navy's response. 
 
 "They sent a piece of crap to sail," said Itati Leguizamon, wife of submarine crew member German Suarez. "They inaugurated a submarine with a coat of paint and a flag in 2014, but without any equipment inside. The navy is to blame for its 15 years of abandonment." 
 
 Balbi defended the Argentine Navy, saying that "with respect to the maintenance and state of our naval and air units, no unit ever leaves port or takes off if it isn't in operating conditions to navigate or fly with total security." 
 
 The German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine was commissioned in 1985 and was most recently refitted in 2014. 
 
 During the $12 million retrofitting, the vessel was cut in half and had its engines and batteries replaced. Experts say that refits can be difficult because they involve integrating systems produced by different manufacturers and even the smallest mistake during the cutting phase of the operation can put the safety of the ship and the crew at risk. 
 
 The Argentine navy and outside experts have said that even if the ARA San Juan is intact, its crew might have only enough oxygen to be submerged seven to 10 days. It lost contact as it was sailing from the extreme southern port of Ushuaia. The submarine's captain had reported a battery failure. 
 
 Authorities said late Wednesday that Argentine navy ships as well a U.S. P-8 Poseidon aircraft and a Brazilian air force plane would return to the area to check out the abnormal sound, which originated about 30 miles north of the submarine's last registered position. 
 
 The search location straddles the edge of the continental shelf, with widely varying ocean depths, some as great as 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). Experts say the submarine could not have supported pressures that far down. 
 
 "If a submarine goes below its crush-depth, it would implode, it would just collapse," said James H. Patton Jr. a retired Navy captain. "It would sound like a very, very big explosion to any listening device." 
 
 Whatever it was, U.S. Navy Lt. Lily Hinz said the sound detected "was not a whale, and it is not a regularly occurring sound." 
 
 Claudio Rodriguez, brother of crew member Hernan Rodriguez, said his family suspects "the explosion was so strong that they were not able to rise to the surface or shoot any flares. They didn't have time for anything." 
 
 "As a family, we're grateful to all the people who prayed for us and for the families of all the 44," he said. 
 
 More than a dozen airplanes and ships have been participating in the multinational search despite stormy weather that has caused waves of more than 20 feet (6 meters). Search teams are combing an area of some 185,000 square miles (480,000 square kilometers), which is roughly the size of Spain. 
 
 The U.S. government has sent two P-8 Poseidons, a naval research ship, a submarine rescue chamber and sonar-equipped underwater vehicles. U.S. Navy sailors from the San Diego-based Undersea Rescue Command were also helping with the search. 
 
 Britain's Ministry of Defense sent a special airplane with emergency life support pods to join the hunt that includes planes and ships from a dozen nations. 
 
 Hopes were buoyed after brief satellite calls were received and when sounds were detected deep in the South Atlantic. But experts later determined that neither was from the missing sub. 
 
 "They haven't come back and they will never come back," said Jesica Gopar, wife of submarine officer Fernando Santilli, choking back tears. "I had a bad feeling about this and now it has been confirmed." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Henao reported from Buenos Aires. AP writer Julie Watson in San Diego and Mayra Pertossi, Debora Rey and Victor Caivano in Buenos Aires and AP video journalist Paul Byrne in Mar del Plata contributed to this report. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption As hopes faded for the sub, angry relatives said the search operation had been inadequate 
 
 Hopes that the 44 crew of a missing Argentine submarine might still be alive have been dashed after the navy said an event consistent with an explosion had been detected. 
 
 The "abnormal, singular, short, violent, non-nuclear event" was recorded in the south Atlantic by a nuclear test watchdog last week. 
 
 Relatives of the missing crew reacted with grief and anger at the news. 
 
 It follows a US report of a loud noise in the same area. 
 
 The ARA San Juan disappeared last Wednesday. More than a dozen countries including the US, Russia and the UK have sent assistance. 
 
 Where is the latest information from? 
 
 It was provided to the Argentine navy on Thursday by the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), spokesman Capt Enrique Balbi said. 
 
 In a statement, the CTBTO said two of its hydro-acoustic stations had detected a signal from an "underwater impulsive event". 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption The ARA San Juan disappeared last Wednesday 
 
 On Wednesday the navy received a US report of a "hydro-acoustic anomaly" detected hours after the submarine went missing. 
 
 Capt Balbi said the suspected explosion took place near the submarine's last known location. 
 
 The navy only knew the location of the suspected explosion, not its cause, he said, and search efforts would be concentrated in the area. 
 
 How have relatives reacted? 
 
 News of the suspected explosion was broken to family members gathered at the Mar del Plata navy base shortly before Capt Balbi spoke to journalists. 
 
 Some remonstrated angrily with the navy spokesman, reports said, while others collapsed in tears. 
 
 Relatives accused the navy of lying to them and of raising false hopes. Others pointed the finger at the government, saying lack of investment and corruption in the armed forces had made the submarine unsafe. 
 
 One man whose brother was on board the ARA San Juan was quoted by Clarin newspaper [in Spanish] as shouting: "They killed my brother, the bastards. They killed my brother because they take them out to sail [in a vessel held together] with wire." 
 
 Luis Tagliapietra, whose son Damián was on board, told Radio Cut that the navy had told them all the crew had been killed in the explosion at a depth of 200m. 
 
 On Wednesday, Capt Balbi said oxygen would be running out on board the vessel. 
 
 What was the sub's last known location? 
 
 The ARA San Juan was returning from a routine mission to Ushuaia, near the southern-most tip of South America, when it reported an "electrical breakdown". 
 
 According to naval commander Gabriel Galeazzi, the submarine surfaced and reported the breakdown, which Capt Galeazzi described as a "short circuit" in the sub's batteries. 
 
 The sub was ordered to cut its mission short and return to the naval base in Mar del Plata immediately. 
 
 According to Capt Balbi, the captain of the ARA San Juan contacted the naval base once more after reporting the problem. 
 
 In the message, he reportedly said that the problem had been adequately fixed and that the sub would submerge and proceed towards Mar del Plata. 
 
 The last contact was made at 07:30 local time (10:30 GMT) on Wednesday 15 November. It is not known what happened to the sub after that contact. 
 
 ARA San Juan submarine Missing since 15 November Built in Germany: 1983 
 
 Length: 66 metres 
 
 Crew: 44 
 
 Top speed: 45 km/h 
 
 Range: 22,224 km Reuters 
 
 Argentine navy protocol stipulates that in peace time, submarines make contact twice a day with the base. 
 
 When the submarine failed to call in, the Argentine navy began its search. 
 
 Who is on board? 
 
 There are 44 crew on board the submarine, which is under the command of Pedro Martín Fernández. 
 
 Forty-three of the crew are men but there is also one woman, Eliana María Krawczyk. The 35-year-old is the first female officer in Argentina to serve on a submarine. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Her family says it was Eliana María Krawczyk's dream to become a submariner 
 
 Nicknamed "the queen of the sea" by her father she comes from Oberá, a city in northern Argentina. 
 
 Despite having been born and raised far inland, her relatives say that "she was born to be a submariner", citing her "will of steel" and a passion for her job. 
 
 The rest of the crew is made up of submariners of varying ages and experience. 
 
 The sub's engineer, Hernán Rodríguez, has been on the ARA San Juan for 11 years, local media reported. 
 
 Submarine tragedies 
 
 Accidents involving submarines are rare. Here are some of the most serious: 
 
 All 70 crew aboard China's Great Wall Ming-class submarine suffocated in 2003 when a diesel engine malfunctioned, consuming the vessel's oxygen supply 
 
 Ming-class submarine suffocated in 2003 when a diesel engine malfunctioned, consuming the vessel's oxygen supply Russia's Kursk submarine sank in the Barents Sea in 2000 after a torpedo exploded during an exercise, killing all 118 on board, including 23 who survived the blast but died due to a lack of oxygen 
 
 submarine sank in the Barents Sea in 2000 after a torpedo exploded during an exercise, killing all 118 on board, including 23 who survived the blast but died due to a lack of oxygen The USS Scorpion sank in the Atlantic in 1968, possibly because a torpedo exploded, killing the 99 crew 
 
 sank in the Atlantic in 1968, possibly because a torpedo exploded, killing the 99 crew The USS Thresher sank during diving tests in 1963, killing all 129 on board - the biggest submarine death toll in history 
 
 How could the missing submarine be located? 
 
 Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Russia, Peru, South Africa, Uruguay and the UK are among the countries that have sent either ships or planes to help with the search. 
 
 The US navy has deployed two underwater vehicles which use sonar to create images of the sea floor. 
 
 A Nasa research aircraft has also flown over the search area but failed to spot anything.
– Hope turned to anger and despair for the families of 44 missing submariners Thursday after the Argentine navy shared news of a grim development. The navy said that a "hydro-acoustic anomaly" detected by the US Navy and a nuclear test-ban monitoring organization soon after the ARA San Juan was last heard from Nov. 15 was apparently an explosion, the BBC reports. Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said the explosion was recorded near the sub's last known location and was "singular, short, violent, and non-nuclear." He said the cause of the apparent explosion is unknown and the search will continue until the vessel's fate is known. Relatives at the Mar del Plata base were seen collapsing in tears. The sub, which had reported a battery failure, was last heard from close to where Argentina's continental shelf drops to depths the vessel could not have survived at, the Guardian reports. "If a submarine goes below its crush-depth, it would implode, it would just collapse," retired US Navy Capt. James H. Patton Jr. tells the AP. "It would sound like a very, very big explosion to any listening device." Relatives accused the navy of giving them false hope—and of sending their loved ones to die in an unfit vessel. "They sent a piece of crap to sail," said Itati Leguizamon, wife of sonar operator German Suarez. "They inaugurated a submarine with a coat of paint and a flag in 2014, but without any equipment inside."