by Lilach Shoval
Israeli Navy Commander Vice Adm. Ram Rothberg presents documents to family members of INS Dakar, whose 69 service members died en route to Israel in 1968 • Decision to hand over the remaining documents was in keeping with "the navy's moral duty."
The INS Dakar was found in
1999, some 31 years after contact was lost
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Photo credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit  |
More than 47 years after the Israeli submarine
Dakar sank off the coast of Crete, the Israeli Navy released on Monday
the entire gamut of documents it had on the ill-fated vessel, including
technical reports on the decades-long search for the submarine and the
69 service members, who died just days before they were to arrive in
Haifa. Israeli Navy Commander Vice Adm. Ram Rothberg presented the
documents to family members on Monday, elaborating on what may have
unfolded during the final moments of the ill-fated voyage, in January
1968.
Rothberg said the decision to release the
documents was made at the request of one of the widows. He noted that
the documents elaborated on what was already known and shared with the
families of the fallen.
The documents mention four possible reasons that could have explained the tragic outcome:
1. Loss of control that resulted in the vessel
reaching its collapse depth (the depth where the hull might collapse
due to pressure). The excessive depth could have been reached as a
result of the crew's incapacitation (fire, poisoning, an explosion or
other factors), or alternatively, as a combination of a human error and a
technical glitch.
2. Water entered the submarine and the added
weight made it reach its collapse depth (also known as crush depth)
before the crew could properly remedy the situation.
3. A foreign object hit the submarine or
otherwise compromised its hull, resulting in an uncontrollable flow of
water. This could have been a result of internal sabotage, a naval mine
or a torpedo.
4. The submarine lost its stability (a technical term for marine vessels).
Rothberg later talked to reporters and
elaborated on the presumed causes, adding that the crew's incapacitation
could have been a result of a insufficient oxygen or some malfunction
on board. "There was no explosion; the submarine was opened only because
it hit the seabed. Some believe that it was hit by an object above
water, since conditions were rough on that day [of the sinking] and
perhaps another vessel hit its snorkel and water started flowing in," he
said.
According to Rothberg, there were still
lingering questions over "what really unfolded." He added that the
decision to hand over the remaining documents was in keeping with "the
navy's moral duty."
INS Dakar's inaugural journey from Portsmouth
in the United Kingdom to Israel, which commenced on Jan. 9, 1968 at 1
p.m., received the code name Dacron. Lieutenant Commander Yaacov Raanan
was the commander of the vessel, which was unarmed. The submarine
carried enough supplies for four weeks, and made one stop in Gibraltar.
According to the newly released documents, the
submarine made its last transmission on Jan. 24, 1968, at 6:10 a.m., 30
nautical miles southeast of Crete's southeastern edge.
The crew was supposed to transmit its location
at 8:00 the following morning, but this never happened. According to
one of the documents released Monday, the Israeli Navy intensified its
efforts to make contact that day, but "it was not particularly worried,
having concluded that the submarine had encountered problems
communicating."
The Israeli Navy received another two
transmissions that appeared to originate with INS Dakar on the 25th and
the 26th. However, this turned out not to be the case. The
misinterpreted transmission led to a delay in the ensuing search by at
least one day.
"The search lasted for 10 days, in rough
weather conditions, with the help of the Israeli Navy missile boats,"
the document reads. "The search lasted for ten days, but on Feb. 4, at
sunset, a decision was made to halt the operation; the submarine and its
crew were declared missing. The families were gathered at the Israeli
Navy base, where they were informed of the bitter news by Defense
Minister Moshe Dayan, Chief of General Staff Haim Bar-Lev and Israeli
Navy Commander Vice Adm. Shlomo Harel."
Later, a committee concluded that an unidentified
station was responsible for the two transmissions on Jan. 25 and Jan.
26, either to mislead Israeli Navy or to engage in some other form of
mischief. Dakar's wreckage was found only in 1999.
Lilach Shoval
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=28005
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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