53 Indonesian sailors die after military submarine descended deepwater

Several items, including parts of a torpedo straightener, a grease bottle believed to be used to oil the periscope, and prayer rugs from the submarine were found during the operation.

After the update, the Indonesian navy changed the status of finding the vessel's remains from "sub miss" to "sub sank" and declared the ship sunk.

“If it’s an explosion it will be in pieces. The cracks happened gradually in some parts when it went down from 300 meters to 400 meters to 500 meters… If there was an explosion, it would be heard by the sonar,” said Air Marshall Hadi Tjahjanto, adding no bodies were found so far.

Authorities said that they received signals from the location more than 800 meters (2,600 feet) deep early Sunday morning and that they had used an underwater submarine rescue vehicle supplied by Singapore to get a visual confirmation.

The debris was found about two miles from where the Nanggala was when it began its dive for a torpedo drill.

Navy officials do not believe the submarine exploded, but say it likely fractured under immense pressure from the depth it was at.

Earlier, The KRI Nanggala 402—the military submarine went missing early Wednesday morning off the coast of Bali during a training exercise.

The German vessel was built with a maximum operating depth of 200 to 250 meters, it likely sank to a depth of at least 850 meters (2,800 feet).