Hypotheses on the causes of the disappearance of the Minerva
The commission began by questioning many experts, commanders or former commanders of submarines of the same type as the Minerve, experts from the DCAN (former name of Naval Group).
These testimonials can be read in the pdf document to download.
The proposed version was voluntarily purged of a page of individual comments, more or less flattering on some of the crew members. The complete version can be consulted at the Defense archives in Vincennes.
First hypotheses were formulated
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Grounding following a technical incident
La Minerve would have run aground on a shoal for some reason, technical failure, human error... In such a case part of the crew could have survived and given signs of life through various devices at his disposal in such cases. It is also by imagining this scenario that the search operations were immediately triggered.
If this were the case, given the scope and scale of the research launched in 1968, the Minerva would surely have been located.
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Collision by a ship
