Navy finds bodies of 7 lost sailors
The bodies of the seven American sailors who went missing when a Navy destroyer collided with a giant Philippine shipping vessel were found inside the damaged ship yesterday, Navy officials said.
The sailors, whose names were not released last night, had been the focus of a massive search by the Japanese Coast Guard, which was the first to arrive at the scene of the pre-dawn collision involving the USS Fitzgerald and was in charge of the rescue efforts.
The bodies were recovered from inside the damaged destroyer and were being transferred to Naval Hospital Yokosuka to be identified, the Navy said last night. Before the bodies were found, five Japanese Coast Guard ships spent the day scouring the waters off Japan and a U.S. Poseidon aircraft worked alongside two Japanese maritime helicopters to comb the search area for any sign of the missing sailors.
Vice Adm. Richard P. Breckenridge called the crash a “tragedy” that should remind Americans of the danger U.S. sailors face every day.
“There’s always risk involved with patrolling the high seas,” Breckenridge said, “and this exemplifies some of that going into harm’s way that’s part of the routine of being in the United States Navy.” Breckenridge referred to the incident as “a tragedy for the Navy.”
“Right now, we are focused on first things first, and that is the safety of the ship as we continue to damage control now that the ship is in port,” Breckenridge said. “But most importantly, taking care of our sailors and the families as we work through this as a Navy family.”
Water rushed into the ship as the impact crushed the Fitzgerald’s forward starboard side, above and below the waterline, damaging two berthing spaces, a machinery area and the ship’s radio room, the Navy said.
Three injured sailors, including the Fitzgerald’s commanding officer, were rushed to a naval hospital with undisclosed injuries. Tugboats pulled the Fitzgerald back to port in Yokosuka in southern Japan yesterday, 16 hours after the Philippine flagged merchant ship ACX Crystal collided with the destroyer 56 miles out at sea.
Commander of the U.S. 7th fleet, Vice Adm. Joseph P. Aucoin, met the ship on the pier at Yokosuka with sailors’ families. “This has been a difficult day,” Aucoin said. “I am humbled by the bravery and tenacity of the Fitzgerald crew.”
Rear Adm. Charles Williams highlighted “the extraordinary courage of the Fitzgerald sailors who contained the flooding, stabilized the ship and sailed her back to Yokosuka despite the exceptionally trying circumstances.”