Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

Bodies found from stricken USS Fitzgerald

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The bodies of missing sailors were found in flooded compartmen­ts of the USS Fitzgerald, which came close to sinking after a collision with a container ship off Japan tore a gash under the warship’s waterline, the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet commander said on Sunday.

Vice Adm Joseph P Aucoin declined to say how many of the seven missing sailors had been recovered, but Japanese media said all had died. “Out of concern for the families and the notificati­on process, I will decline to state how many we have found at this time,” Aucoin told reporters, adding the search at sea had ended.

The USS Fitzgerald could have foundered, or even sunk, but for the crew’s desperate efforts to save the ship, he said.

“The damage was significan­t. There was a big gash under the water,” Aucoin said at Yokosuka naval base, home of the US Seventh Fleet, the docked Fitzgerald behind him. “A significan­t portion of the crew was sleeping” when the destroyer collided with the Philippine-flagged container ship, destroying the commander’s cabin, he said.

The Fitzgerald is salvageabl­e, he said, but repairs will likely take months. “Hopefully less than a year. You will see the USS Fitzgerald back,” Aucoin said.

Multiple US and Japanese investigat­ions are under way on how a ship as large as the container could ram into the warship in clear weather. Aucoin was asked if damage on the starboard side indicated the US ship could have been at fault, but he declined to speculate on the cause of the collision. Maritime rules suggest vessels are supposed to give way to ships on their starboard.

The Seventh Fleet said in a statement earlier on Sunday: “Divers were able to access the space and found a number of bodies.” They were transferre­d to a US naval hospital for identifica­tion. The merchant vessel is more than thrice the size of the destroyer.

 ?? AP ?? An injured sailor being carried by US military personnel
AP An injured sailor being carried by US military personnel

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