2nd Attempt to Lift the Sunken Naval Submarine Will Soon Commence

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Another attempt to recover the main parts of the sunken Naval submarine KRI Nanggala 402 which lies in the Bali Strait ocean floor 839 meters below is scheduled to commence soon. This is suggested in a report by the Chinese government-run media CCTV, which was based on the press conference from the Indonesian Navy and the Chinese Embassy at the Denpasar, Bali, military base on May 18.

The report mentioned the initial second-phase recovery plan that would be commenced on May 26. 

Both the Indonesian Navy and China had worked together to recover a plethora of items from the submarine in 13 diving operations with two Navy ships and one Chinese research vessel already at the Bali Strait above the location where the Nanggala 402 lies.

The Shenhai Yongsi rover, according to the CCTV report, had successfully recovered and surfaced in a total of 700 kilograms of debris from the sunken submarine, which includes the submarine’s ESM antenna, torpedo cable cover, external fuselage panel, PRS hydrophones, technical handbook, and the hull fin that was unable to be recovered in the first operation. 

According to the statement from the Indonesian Navy Chief Commander, Rear Admiral Iwan Isnurwanto, the Chinese vessel had attempted to lift Nanggala’s bridge section but failed as the sling cables used to lift the 20-ton section failed. 

The first rescue operation was conducted by the Navy and a rescue vessel from Singapore, MV Swift Rescue, which successfully identified and obtained visual confirmation of the submarine. This led to the fact that the Nanggala 402 had broken into three large sections.

Read: TNI Commander Finds 'Valuable Lesson' in Sunken Naval Submarine Tragedy

ZACHARIAS WURAGIL | TEMPO.CO