Lindstrand offers to help Argentine submarine
Aeronautical engineer Per Lindstrand will offer his services if the rescue of an Argentinian navy submarine turns into a salvage operation.
The submarine has been missing since November 15, when it sent its last signal to crews on land. Now there are major concerns that the crew have not survived.
Lindstrand, who has a balloon factory in Oswestry, has offered his services to salvage the submarine wreckage if needed.
He was approached in 2000 to help lift a Russian submarine, the 'Kursk', which sank in the Barents sea and killed all 118 crew members on board.
The expertise in floatation devices would aid Mr Lindstrand in being able to bring the submarine to the surface.
He said: "You would attach balloons to the side of the submarine, and it would come to the surface and then be towed into port.
"We were asked to do a similar thing 17 years ago.
"Bringing the hull of the submarine up is quite straightforward, getting into it is harder.
"I'm confident we could do it. It has been missing for a while now and there is zero chance anyone has survived.
"We haven't offered yet, but they would contact the Royal Navy who would contact us.
The families of the crew on the missing vessel have reacted with anger after it was announced it could have been possible the submarine was hit by an explosion.
An abnormal sound detected in the South Atlantic ocean was “consistent with an explosion”, the navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said.
The navy did not have enough information to say what the cause of the explosion could have been or whether the vessel – the ARA San Juan – might have been attacked.
A huge sea and air hunt is being conducted for the San Juan, a German-built, diesel- and electric-powered submarine that was launched in 1983.
Some relatives have questioned authorities for letting the crew navigate on an ageing submarine.
