Maritime accident
Three hurt after US destroyer collides with ship off Japan
Search on for seven US Navy sailors after collision between destroyer and merchant ship.
YOKOSUKA ( Japan): US and Japanese vessels and aircraft were searching for seven American sailors who were missing after their Navy destroyer collided before dawn with a container ship four times its size off the coast of Japan.
The USS Fitzgerald was back at its home port in Yokosuka Naval Base south of Tokyo by sunset yesterday, its crew lined up on deck.
The Philippine-flagged container ship was berthed at Tokyo’s Oi wharf, where officials began questioning crew members about the cause of the night-time crash.
After helping stabilise the USS Fitzgerald, the destroyer USS Dewey joined other American and Japanese vessels and aircraft in the search for the missing sailors.
At least three other Navy sailors were injured in the collision.
The US 7th Fleet said in a statement that the crash damaged two berthing spaces, a machinery room and the radio room.
Most of the more than 200 sailors aboard would have been asleep in their berths at the time of the predawn crash.
Water was being pumped out of flooded areas and it was unclear how long it would take to get into the crushed mid-right side of the ship once it was at the pier in Yokosuka, the statement said.
The USS Fitzgerald’s captain, Cmdr Bryce Benson, was airlifted early yesterday to the US Naval Hospital in Yokosuka and was in stable condition with a head injury, the Navy said. Two other crew members suffered cuts and bruises and were evacuated.
The Navy said that the collision occurred 56 nautical miles (103km) southwest of Yokosuka, home to the 7th Fleet.
“Right now we are focused on two things: the safety of the ship and the well-being of the sailors,” said Adm Scott Swift, commander of the US Pacific Fleet.
The Japanese coast guard said it received an emergency call from the container ship, the ACX Crystal, reporting the collision at around 2.20am local time.
The ACX Crystal weighs 29,060 tonnes and is 222m long, the coast guard said, much larger than the 8,315-tonne Navy destroyer.
The container ship did not appear to have sustained any major structural damage.