7 BODIES FOUND IN FLOODED CABINS
Many crew members sleeping during crash, says US Navy
THE bodies of missing sailors were yesterday 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.
United States Seventh Fleet commander Vice-Admiral Joseph Aucoin said the USS Fitzgerald could have foundered, or even sunk, but for the crew’s desperate efforts to save the ship.
“The damage was significant. There was a big gash under the water,” Aucoin said.
“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 would likely take months.
“Hopefully less than a year. You will see the USS Fitzgerald back,” Aucoin said.
He 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.
Japanese media said all seven missing sailors were found dead.
The US Seventh Fleet said yesterday: “Divers were able to access the space and found a number of bodies.”
They were transferred to a US naval hospital for identification, it said.
“The families are being notified and being provided the support they need during this difficult time.”
The Fitzgerald collided with the merchant vessel more than three times its size 56 nautical miles southwest here on Saturday.
Three people were evacuated to US Naval Hospital here, including the ship’s commanding officer, Commander Bryce Benson, who was in stable condition.
The other two were being treated for lacerations and bruises.
The USS Fitzgerald sailed into port on Saturday evening, listing around five degrees, a US Navy spokesman said. The flooding was in two berthing compartments, the radio room and auxiliary machine room, he said. There were 285 crew onboard. Benson took command of the Fitzgerald on May 13. He had previously commanded a minesweeper based in Sasebo, western Japan. It was unclear how the collision happened.
“Once an investigation is complete, any legal issues can be addressed,” a US Seventh Fleet spokesman said.
Japanese authorities were looking into the possibility of “endangerment of traffic caused by professional negligence”, Japanese media reported
The US Navy said the collision happened at 2.30am local time, while the Japanese Coast Guard said it was 1.30am.
Japan’s Nippon Yusen KK, which charters the container ship, ACX Crystal, said on Saturday it would “cooperate fully” with the Coast Guard’s investigation.
At around 29,000 tonnes displacement, the ship dwarfs the 8,315-tonne US warship. It was carrying 1,080 containers from the port of Nagoya to Tokyo.
None of the 20 crew members aboard the container ship, all Filipino, were injured, and the ship was not leaking oil, Nippon Yusen said. The ship arrived at Tokyo Bay later on Saturday. Reuters