Taiwan Navy confirms submarine incident likely due to unexpected waves

Taipei, Dec. 26 (CNA) Sudden waves are likely to blame for an incident on Dec. 21 that left three members of a Taiwan submarine crew missing, Taiwan's Navy confirmed Tuesday as it presented a timeline of what happened.

The Navy initially suspected last week that rogue waves swept the missing crew members off their submarine's deck, but Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Wu Li-ping (吳立平) provided more details at a press briefing Tuesday.

The incident took place on board the Hai Hu (海虎), or Sea Tiger, submarine, which departed from Kaohsiung on Dec. 18 for a training mission in waters off southwestern Taiwan that was set to conclude on Dec. 29, Wu said.

At around noon on Dec. 21, while their submarine was operating under the sea, Hai Hu crew members heard "abnormal sounds" coming from the rear part of the vessel that they eventually identified as coming from a rescue buoy.

The buoy was floating outside the submarine after the wooden cover of its compartment in the vessel fell off, for reasons the Navy has yet to determine.

Fearing that the 300-meter steel cable the buoy was attached to and dragging to the surface could damage the submarine's propeller blades, the captain decided to bring the submarine to the surface and have crew members go to the ship's deck to recover the buoy, Wu said.

Four crew members were sent out initially and were all wearing life jackets and were tethered to the deck by a safety harness, which was supposed to prevent them from going overboard.

Three of them, however, were swept overboard by a sudden rogue wave, and one of them was saved because his harness was working.

The two others went missing because the buckles connecting their harnesses to the line was deformed under the stress of the weather conditions and came loose, Wu said.

After hearing that the crew members were overboard, the ship's weapons system chief went to the submarine deck himself to rescue them. He later fell into the sea but was quickly saved, Wu said.

Later, the captain sent another six crew members, who were assigned to the sub's rescue team in case of an emergency, to the deck to rescue the crew members who had gone missing while trying to retrieve the buoy.

One of the six was also later thrown overboard due to rogue wave and went missing, Wu said.

A master chief petty officer surnamed Lin (林) and two petty officers surnamed Yen (顏) and Chang (張) are still missing even though the military has dispatched 80 aircraft and 76 vessels involving 981 people on search and rescue missions since the incident took place, according to Wu.

Preliminary indications are that the weather conditions, in particular winds measuring a five on the Beaufort Scale, were within safety standards on Dec. 21 and that an unexpected surge in the sea was likely the main reason for the accident, Wu said.

He pledged that the military will not call off the search and mission until they find the missing crew members because "we won't leave our fellow comrades behind."

The Navy previously said Sunday it would continue the search mission for at least another 72 hours following the elapsing of the first 72 hours -- also known as the "golden time" for search and rescue missions.

The Hai Hu is one of two Chien Lung-class (Sword Dragon) submarines Taiwan purchased from the Netherlands in the 1980s, the other being the Hai Lung, or Sea Dragon.

Taiwan also possesses two World War II vintage submarines purchased from the United States in the 1970s, but they are now used exclusively for training purposes.

The country is now building indigenous submarines to replace the aging fleet, and a prototype called the Hai Kun (海鯤), or "Narwhal," was unveiled in September.

The construction of domestic submarines means Taiwan will have a total of three combat-ready submarines by 2025, and four by 2027, according to the Navy.