Argentina: Congress committee releases report into sunken submarine

W/S Argentine's Congress' bicameral commission holding press briefing, Buenos Aires
M/S Victims' relatives being greeted in briefing
M/S Members of commission
M/S Members of commission
SOT, Carlos Alvarez, secretary of Bicameral Commission (Spanish): "The submarine had a series of technical problems that made its use as a combat platform difficult, but did not limit its navigation or safe diving operations up to the depth limit set at 100 metres"
M/S Investigation files stacked *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Carlos Alvarez, secretary of Bicameral Commission (Spanish): "The commander of the submarine force unlike other naval or military command is the submarine control authority, has the absolute and non-delegable and permanent power over the type and form of navigation that the submarine must develop, whether it be immersion or surfacing. The commanders did not assume the seriousness of the breakdown and did not properly assess its implications."
C/U Investigation files stacked *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Carlos Alvarez, secretary of Bicameral Commission (Spanish): "The hypothesis that the submarine was attacked by a foreign warship, that it was attacked by a fishing vessel, or that it was found performing secret tasks outside jurisdictional waters is discarded."
M/S Reporters *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Carlos Alvarez, secretary of Bicameral Commission (Spanish): "Budget deficiencies throughout the different administrations, the lack of technological updating and a minimum level of maintenance depending on the hours of use, produced a growing deterioration of the material limiting its operating conditions"
M/S Attendees *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Carlos Alvarez, secretary of Bicameral Commission (Spanish): "We can affirm with certainty that an electric fire in battery tank number three triggered other incidents of magnitude that could not be controlled by its crew with the consequent loss of plane/level until the implosion occurred by exceeding its depth and the collapse of the resistant hull of the submarine Ara San Juan.”
C/U Picture of victim on flag *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Carlos Alvarez, secretary of Bicameral Commission (Spanish): "The lack of precision in the determination of procedures and emergency roles in handling battery fire in submarines, the minimisation of the consequences of the electrical fire addressed throughout the chain of command, the inadequate handling of the emergency during the critical hours of the operational bases on land."
M/S Victims' relatives
M/S Victims' relatives
C/U Victims' relatives
C/U ARA San Juan submarine depicted on badges with number 44 representing number of victims
W/S Victims' relatives present in briefing
SOT, Nancy Meoqui, mother of victim (Spanish): "The people of the Navy that had the responsibility, surely they had never climbed a submarine, then they did not know of the dangers that was a ship under the sea without the sufficient conditions."
M/S Victims' relatives *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Nancy Meoqui, mother of victim (Spanish): "The responsibility is of the superior's army, because they are what they had to say yes or no to leave Ushuaia knowing that they would see such a temporary."
M/S Attendees *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Luis Tagliapietra, father of victim (Spanish): "All the evidence indicates the enormous indifference that at the time of sending it without a mission, in a ship that clearly was not able to withstand all that"
W/S Briefing ending
SCRIPT
An investigation committee set up by the Argentinian legislative branch into the tragic implosion of ARA San Juan submarine released its findings in a press briefing in Buenos Aires on Thursday.
"The hypothesis that the submarine was attacked by a foreign warship, that it was attacked by a fishing vessel, or that it was found performing secret tasks outside jurisdictional waters is discarded," said Secretary of Congress' bicameral commission in a briefing attended by the relatives of the 44 victims of the submarine incident.
According to the investigations, a fire in the submarine's battery tank had grown out of control causing the submarine to sink to the seafloor where it imploded.
The ARA San Juan and its crew of 44 went missing on November 15 2017, shortly after reporting an electrical malfunction. It was 480km (380 miles) off the coast of Argentina, en route from Ushuaia to its base in Mar del Plata.
Officials confirmed the ARA San Juan submarine was uncovered at a depth of 907m (2,975 feet) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean a year after its disappearance.