US crew lost in collision
Destroyer runs into huge container ship at sea near Japan.
Seven US Navy sailors were missing and the captain and at least two others were injured after an American destroyer and a container ship four times its size collided off the coast of Japan before dawn yesterday.
Rescuers were searching for the seven sailors who were thought to have been thrown into the sea or possibly trapped inside damaged sections of the destroyer, said Japanese coastguard spokesman Yoshihito Nakamura. None of the crew of the Philippine-registered container ship ACX Crystal was reported injured.
Footage from the Japanese TV network NHK showed navy crew members working to pump water from flooded sections of the mid-right side of the USS Fitzgerald. The navy’s 7th Fleet said flooding was stabilised and sailors from the USS Dewey came aboard to assist in damage control.
The ship’s captain, Commander Bryce Benson, was airlifted to the US Naval Hospital in Yokosuka and was in stable condition, the 7th Fleet said.
Two other crew suffered cuts and bruises and were evacuated, it said. It was unclear how many others may have been hurt.
The Fitzgerald had limited propulsion after suffering damage on the right side below the water line and a US defence official said there was flooding in three compartments.
It wasn’t clear yet what caused the night collision between the 8315 ton destroyer and the 222m, 29,060 ton container ship. Most of the more than 200 sailors aboard would have been asleep in their berths, some of which were reportedly flooded.
The area is particularly busy with sea traffic, said Yutaka Saito of the coastguard.
The navy, Japanese maritime defence vessels and the coastguard were working to stabilise the destroyer as it headed to shore, said navy chief Admiral John Richardson.
The navy said that the collision occurred 103km southwest of Yokosuka, which is 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 Admiral Scott Swift, commander of the US Pacific Fleet.
The navy’s Pacific Fleet said the extent of damage to the Fitzgerald was being determined and the incident was under investigation. Moscow claims its forces may have killed Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an air strike in Syria last month, but Washington says it can’t corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials are sceptical. The secretive Isis leader has frequently been reported killed or wounded since he declared a caliphate in 2014 to rule over all Muslims.
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