TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Naval Chief of Staff Admiral Yudo Margono on Sunday noon announced that the missing submarine KRI Nanggala has been discovered laying at the bottom of the ocean north of the Bali sea following an intensive search since the submarine lost contact on Wednesday, April 21.

“The [KRI Nanggala] is separated into three main wreckages,” said Yudo in the virtual press conference on April 25.

The discovery of the wreckage was initially detected by the multibeam echo sounder from the Indonesian naval ship KRI Rigel at the depth of over 800 meters on the ocean bed. The ship’s ROV was initially planned to make visual confirmation but was restricted by the depth that the ROV is able to reach.

The Admiral recalled that the search for visual contact was then handed to Singapore’s MV Swift Rescue that had joined the search. At 07:37 WITA the ship deployed its ROV guided by the coordinates from the initial finding.

The Swift Rescue’s ROV eventually made visual contact with the vertical rear steer, anchor, dive rudder and escape suit of the naval submarine that had been separated into three main wreckage at the depth of 838 meters.

“Based on the authentic pieces of evidence it is confirmed that the KRI Nanggala 402 has sunk and the entire 53 crew perished,” said TNI Commander Hadi Tjahjanto.

Read: Sunken Naval Submarine; TNI to Request ISMERLO Assistance

EGI ADYATAMA