Families of Argentinian submarine crew cling to hope as weather improves

The search has continued on Tuesday for an Argentine submarine with 44 crew aboard, missing in the South Atlantic for nearly a week, with improved weather expected to quicken the hunt for the vessel.

The submarine was en route from Ushuaia in Argentina's extreme south to the coastal city of Mar del Plata when it sent its last location on November 15.

"Today is a critical day," said Maria Victoria Morales, the mother of Luis Garcia, an electrical technician aboard the vessel. "We are holding up as well as we can."

Morales and other relatives of crew members have been gathered at a naval base in Mar del Plata, where authorities are co-ordinating the search and rescue operation.

"He's carrying out his duty and we're all prepared to deal with that," said Jorge Villarreal, father of missing crewman Fernando Villarreal.

The wire fence at the Mar del Plata naval base was dotted on Monday with emotional messages holding out hope for word from the submariners.

"Courageous Men and Women of the Navy: Our Hearts have Stopped Beating Until You're Home," read one banner, carefully handwritten.

TRT World's Alican Ayanlar reports.

About 100 relatives of the missing were at the base getting medical and counselling support, around the clock. They tried to stay calm and keep hope alive.

"Be strong Daddy. Your family is waiting for you," read one sign, alongside religious posters and some handwritten prayers.

"So far, we have not had a lot of crisis reactions, such as weeping; people are sort of stable amid the uncertainty," said therapist Enrique Stein.

But "anxiety is starting to grow," he stressed.

Concerns over crew

The navy says the search has now entered a critical phase because they're worried the submarine is almost out of oxygen.

It only had enough for the crew to survive for seven days.

The submarine had reported an electrical problem and was heading back to its base in Mar del Plata when it disappeared on Wednesday nearly 300 miles off the coast.

Searchers have suffered disappointments in recent days as analyses have shown that satellite signals and sounds detected by underwater probes initially thought to be messages from the crew did not come from the vessel.

''Those signals, or noises, as we call them, were brought to the operations centre where they were analysed with a specialised computer programme to be able to determine and confirm that these signals did not come from the submarine,'' said a naval commander Gabriel Galeazzi.

Multi-national search team

Meteorologists expected waves of about two metres (6.6 ft) in the search area for the ARA San Juan, down from eight meters over the weekend. 

"We trust that the boats assigned to each zone can do an effective maritime patrol, and will not be struggling against the storm as they were in recent days," Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said on Monday night.

Rescue boats have scoured about 80 percent of the search area, but storms and high winds have limited the effort in the past several days.

The US Navy was preparing on Tuesday to deploy rescue equipment, including a remote-operated vehicle.

More than a dozen boats and planes from Argentina, the United States, Britain, Chile and Brazil have joined the search. Authorities have mainly been scanning from the sky as storms have halted the maritime hunt.