US Navy ship collisions prompt rare criminal charges
WASHINGTON — The US Navy’s decision to charge five officers with negligent homicide for their involvement in two fatal ship crashes marks a rare legal move that, if proven, could send them to jail for up to three years.
US Navy officials and other experts struggled on Wednesday to identify other naval accidents in recent history that triggered such a serious criminal charge, and couldn’t point to a case that led to a negligent homicide conviction.
The Navy on Tuesday laid out the charges that would be presented at what is called an Article 32 hearing, which will determine whether the accused will go to trial in a court-martial. No doubt paving the way for the severe charges was the significant loss of life in the two collisions.
The USS Fitzgerald struck a commercial ship off the waters of Japan in June, killing seven US sailors; the USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker in coastal waters off Singapore in August, killing 10 US sailors.
“What’s different here is the loss of life,” said Eugene Fidell, an expert in military law who teaches at Yale Law School. “The victims’ families are obviously devastated by this, the Navy obviously feels it has an obligation to them as well to its own standards.”
Still, he said it is highly unusual for such a case to actually go to trial, or for a commander to go to jail.
Typically, he said, cases end in plea bargains and officers are more likely to be dismissed from the service, lose their retirement or receive other administrative punishments, depending on the seriousness of the charge.
Commanders involved in other ship collisions have largely avoided any type of homicide or manslaughter charges.
When the USS Greeneville, a submarine, surfaced underneath the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishing vessel, off Oahu in 2001, it plunged nearly three dozen students and instructors into the water, killing nine.
An investigation concluded the ship’s captain was in a hurry and rushed through mandatory safety procedures while demonstrating an emergency surfacing drill. The captain was eventually reprimanded by a military court of inquiry, but did not face court-martial. He retired with his full rank and pension. The victims’ families received a $16.5 million settlement from the Navy.
The Navy said on Wednesday that preliminary hearings for the five officers charged in the Fitzgerald and McCain collisions will likely be held in the coming weeks in the Washington, but exact locations and dates are not set yet. The hearing officer will decide whether there is enough evidence for the cases will go to a trial by courtmartial and what specific charges will be brought against the officers, based on that evidence.