They find a French submarine gone in 1968 | …

The French submarine "La Minerve", disappeared in 1968 with 52 crew members on board, was found Sunday off the coast of southern France, a "relief" for the families of the victims of this tragedy which has not yet been elucidated. . "It's a relief, a huge emotion," said the son of the commander of the military submarine, Hervé Fauve. "They were close to us, it's an extraordinary relief," adds Thérèse Scheirmann-Descamps, widow of one of the sailors.

For more than half a century, "La Minerve" was 2,370 meters deep, divided into three parts, 35 kilometers off the coast. "Some letters are still visible, MIN," says Fauve.

The Minerve sank on January 27, 1968, in just four minutes, while he was performing maneuvers about thirty kilometers from the coast of Toulon. Although the authorities immediately launched a rescue operation, including that led by the famous commander Jacques Cousteau aboard his minisubmarine, it could not be located until now.

The submarine was located by the US ship "Seabed Constructor", which arrived last Tuesday on the French coast to participate in research. It's this same ship, from the company Ocean Infinity, which on November 17, 2018 found the ARA San Juan, missing with 44 crew members on board.

The "Seabed Constructor" is equipped with underwater cameras capable of filming the seabed up to 6,000 meters deep. "It's a success, a relief and a technical feat, and my thoughts are with the families who have been waiting so long for this moment," said French Army Minister Florence Parly.

Damage to control surfaces, collision with a ship, missile explosion, torpedo, oxygen supply accident … Many hypotheses have been put forward to try to explain this tragedy. The first elements allow "to reject the crazy badumptions that have hurt families so much, whether it is a problem with the Russians or a violent collision," says Thérèse Scheirmann-Descamps to AFP.

"It was an accident," he says, although the authorities have not yet given details about the causes of this disaster. In 2018, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his disappearance, relatives of the disappeared had called for the resumption of research, in the hope that "modern technical advances" would locate the ship. Operations resumed early in the year. Specialists focused on defining the area where the remains of "La Minerve" were most likely to be found. A series of data were examined in the light of current scientific knowledge.

Despite the findings, there is little chance that the bodies of the 52 crew members will be found. "An Israeli submarine, the" Dakar ", sank in front of Cyprus two days before" La Minerve. "When it was found in 1999, there was nothing left," said Hervé Fauve.