‘Not ready to live without you’: Video of Indonesian submariners singing farewell song before tragic journey

Haunting clip recorded weeks before disappearance as goodbye to outgoing commander

A video filmed from an Indonesian submarine just weeks before it sank during a routine training exercise killing all 53 onboard shows the crew singing a farewell song.

“Even though I’m not ready to be missing you, I’m not ready to live without you,” the sailors sing as one plays an acoustic guitar. “I wish all the best for you.”

The song is “Sampai Jumpa”, an Indonesian hit whose title means “See you again”.

Djawara Whimbo, an Indonesian military spokesperson, told the AFP news agency the video was recorded as a farewell to the commander of the navy’s submarine corps, who left the role in March.

Heri Oktavian, 42, who was commander of the stricken vessel and was among the confirmed dead in last week’s incident, is one of those filmed singing,

The KRI Nanggala-402 was discovered lying on the seabed at a depth of 850 metres, far beyond its diving range, on Sunday, four days after it lost contact while preparing to conduct a torpedo drill. Its hull was broken into at least three parts.

Grieving relatives gathered on the seashore in Bali on Monday to pay their respects to the sailors who died, and urged the authorities to bring up their bodies from the seafloor.

A major search and rescue effort involving aircraft and specialised naval vessels, including from Singapore, Australia and the United States, had raced to find the submarine in case it was still intact and before oxygen ran out.

But on Sunday Indonesia's military confirmed the Nanggala had sunk and all of it crew had died.