A woman cries in front of a fence enclosing the Mar de Plata Naval Base after learning that Argentina's navy announced that a sound detected during the search for the missing ARA San Juan submarine is consistent with that of an explosion, in Mar de Plata, Argentina, Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017. A Navy spokesman said that the relatives of the crew have been informed and that the search will continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan. He said there was no sign the explosion might be linked to any attack on the sub. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
A woman cries in front of a fence enclosing the Mar de Plata Naval Base after learning that Argentina's navy announced that a sound detected during the search for the missing ARA San Juan submarine is consistent with that of an explosion, in Mar de Plata, Argentina, Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017. A Navy spokesman said that the relatives of the crew have been informed and that the search will continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan. He said there was no sign the explosion might be linked to any attack on the sub. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) Credit: Esteban Felix

Mar Del Plata, Argentina — An apparent explosion occurred near the time and place an Argentine submarine went missing, the country’s navy reported on Thursday, prompting relatives of the vessel’s 44 crew members to burst into tears and some to say they had lost hope of a rescue.

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said the search will continue until there is full certainty about the fate of the ARA San Juan, despite the evidence of an explosion and with more than a week having passed since the submarine disappeared.

It was originally scheduled to arrive on Monday at Argentina’s Mar del Plata Navy Base.

The U.S. Navy and an international nuclear test-ban monitoring organization said a “hydro-acoustic anomaly” was produced just hours after the navy lost contact with the sub on Nov. 15. It was near the submarine’s last known location.

“According to this report, there was an explosion,” Balbi told reporters. “We don’t know what caused an explosion of these characteristics at this site on this date.”

The navy spokesman described the “anomaly” as “singular, short, violent and non-nuclear.”

“They sent a piece of crap to sail,” said Itati Leguizamon, wife of submarine crew member German Suarez. “They inaugurated a submarine with a coat of paint and a flag in 2014, but without any equipment inside. The navy is to blame for its 15 years of abandonment.”

Balbi defended the Argentine Navy, saying that “with respect to the maintenance and state of our naval and air units, no unit ever leaves port or takes off if it isn’t in operating conditions to navigate or fly with total security.”

The German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine was commissioned in 1985 and was most recently refitted in 2014.

During the $12 million retrofitting, the vessel was cut in half and had its engines and batteries replaced. Experts say that refits can be difficult because they involve integrating systems produced by different manufacturers and even the smallest mistake during the cutting phase of the operation can put the safety of the ship and the crew at risk.

The Argentine navy and outside experts have said that even if the ARA San Juan is intact, its crew might have only enough oxygen to be submerged seven to 10 days. It lost contact as it was sailing from the extreme southern port of Ushuaia.

The submarine’s captain had reported a battery failure.

Authorities said late Wednesday that Argentine navy ships as well a U.S. P-8 Poseidon aircraft and a Brazilian air force plane would return to the area to check out the abnormal sound, which originated about 30 miles north of the submarine’s last registered position.

The search location straddles the edge of the continental shelf, with widely varying ocean depths, some as great as 10,000 feet.

Experts say the submarine could not have supported pressures that far down.

“If a submarine goes below its crush-depth, it would implode, it would just collapse,” said James H. Patton Jr. a retired Navy captain. “It would sound like a very, very big explosion to any listening device.”