- The latest Netflix documentary explores the fate of an Argentinian military submarine, the ARA San Juan, which went missing in 2017.
- The remains of the vessel weren’t discovered until a year after its initial disappearance.
- All 44 crew members aboard the submarine died as the craft suffered an implosion, similar to that of the Titan submersible last year.
While its bread and butter may be big-budget TV series like Stranger Things and The Witcher, Netflix also offers a near-unparalleled collection of documentaries and its latest series promises to be a must-watch.
The story of ARA San Juan: The Submarine that Disappeared
The Netflix documentary charts the events surrounding the tragic disappearance of the ARA San Juan, an Argentinian naval submarine that went missing on November 15, 2017.
Originally launched in June 1983 and named after the Argentinian province of the same name, the San Juan submarine was 34 years old when it went missing off the coast of Argentina during a routine patrol.
A multi-nation search for the vessel was mounted but as the days wore on, hope of rescuing the 44 crew members alive dwindled.
Around the time of the submarine’s disappearance, an acoustic anomaly consistent with an implosion was detected – the same fate suffered by the Titan submersible that caught the world’s attention in the summer of 2023.
On November 30, the initial search operation for the submarine was abandoned.
A year later
On November 16, 2018, almost a year to the day since its disappearance, the wreckage of the San Juan was found.
The Argentinian Navy reported that the remnants of the vessel were discovered 290 miles off the coastal city of Comodoro Rivadavia at a crushing depth of 907 meters (2,976 ft).
Such was the devastation of the implosion suffered by the San Juan that wreckage was strewn over an area of 8,000 square meters (86,000 sq ft).
In October 2021, a memorial commemorating the 44 crew members was unveiled at the Mar del Plata Naval Base in eastern Argentina.
Key details about the docuseries
ARA San Juan: The Submarine that Disappeared will be available to stream on Netflix from Thursday, March 7, 2024.
The docuseries will consist of eight episodes in total, each of which is expected to be around 30 minutes in length for an estimated total runtime of roughly four hours according to IMDb.
