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Private Submarine Sinks Off Denmark, Crew Safe

by Associated Press

   COPENHAGEN --

   A crowdfunded, amateur-built submarine that was missing in Danish
   waters has sunk south of Copenhagen, but the owner and builder who was
   alone onboard is safe, the Danish navy said Friday.
   Initially the navy said the 40-ton, nearly 18-meter-long (60-foot-long)
   UC3 Nautilus was "found sailing" south of Copenhagen. However, navy
   press spokesman Anders Damgaard later said it had sunk and Peter
   Madsen, who built the vessel that was launched in 2008, had "been taken
   over to one of our ships." He declined to give details.
   Footage aired on Denmark's TV2 channel showed Madsen, 46, getting off
   what seemed to be a private boat and making a thumbs up sign as he
   walked away. It was not clear why the submarine sank.
   "He told us that the journalist who also had been on board had been
   dropped off Thursday evening," Damgaard told The Associated Press.
   Swedish media said the reporter was Swedish. "They were the only two on
   board yesterday."
   After the submarine was reported missing early Friday, the navy had
   launched a search from Copenhagen to the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm
   with two helicopters and three ships, and encouraged members of the
   public with boats and sonar to search too.
   "He told us he had technical problems" to explain why the submarine
   failed to respond to radio contact, Damgaard said.