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Jacksonville Navy plane crew joins search for missing submarine

U.S. Navy plane crew members from Jacksonville are on a rescue mission, helping Argentina's navy ramp up the search for its missing submarine.

Teams from several countries have intensified their efforts in the South Atlantic to find the ARA San Juan submarine, which vanished Wednesday.

Crews have had difficulty tracking the submarine because of poor weather. The weather off the coast of Argentina has been a hindrance.

Argentina’s navy personnel said choppy water and strong wind have added more problems to the already challenging rescue mission.

The U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon and 21 crew members left Jacksonville Sunday to help with the international search for the missing submarine.

The deployment comes after the Navy sent a crew from San Diego to join a NASA p-3 research aircraft that is looking for any sign of the submarine and its 44 crew members

The communication with the vessel went dark Wednesday. Reports show a fire on board the submarine, which supposedly knocked out its communications.

The missing submarine is one of three that were on a routine trip off the Argentine coast. Navy ships, planes, and helicopters are looking for any sign of it.

The P-8A that left Jacksonville is the Navy's newest maritime aircraft with state-of-the-art sensors and communications equipment, allowing it to support a wide range of missions over large bodies of water.

It can reach an airspeed of 564 mph and span a range of 1,200 nautical miles, permitting it to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time.

The submarine has enough oxygen, food and water to last at least two weeks. Navy protocol dictates that a vessel should come to the surface if communication has been lost.