COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – An amateur-built submarine financed through crowdfunding sunk in Denmark’s waters south of Copenhagen on Friday, but the owner and builder who was alone onboard is safe, the navy said Friday.
The navy initially said the UC3 Nautilus was “found sailing” south of Copenhagen. But navy spokesman Anders Damgaard later said the 40-ton, nearly 18-meter-long (60-foot-long) submarine had sunk.
Peter Madsen, who built the vessel that was launched in 2008, had “been taken over to one of our ships,” Damgaard said. He declined to give further details.
Footage aired on Denmark’s TV2 channel showed the 46-year-old Madsen getting off what seemed to be a private boat and making a thumbs-up sign as he walked away.
“I am fine but sad because Nautilus went down,” he told Denmark’s TV2 channel. Madsen said “a minor problem with a ballast tank … turned into a major issue” that ultimately caused the vessel – considered the largest privately-built of its kind in the world – to sink.