Navy identifies seven sailors killed on vessel
YOKOSUKA, Japan — The U.S. Navy has identified the seven sailors who died when their destroyer collided with a container ship off Japan on Saturday.
Seven crew members were unaccounted for after the collision flooded berths with seawater. Navy divers recovered the bodies after the severely damaged USS Fitzgerald returned to a Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan, aided by tugboats.
The Japan-based 7th Fleet identified the victims on Monday as Gunner's Mate Seaman Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, from Palmyra, Va.; Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, from San Diego; Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoc T. Truong Huynh, 25, from Oakville, Conn.; Gunner's Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez, 26, from Weslaco, Texas; Fire Controlman 2nd Class Carlosvictor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, from Chula Vista, Calif.; Personnel Specialist 1st Class Xavier Alec Martin, 24, from Halethorpe, Md.; and Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37, from Elyria, Ohio.
The destroyer came close to sinking after the “traumatic” collision off the coast of Japan, the commander of the 7th Fleet said Sunday.
Vice Adm. Joseph P. Aucoin said the search-andrescue mission was over.
Multiple investigations are underway to determine how a technologically advanced U.S. warship was not able to get out of the way of the huge and cumbersome container ship, even if it had right of way.
“This was a severe emergency,” Aucoin said Sunday at the Yokosuka naval base, home of the 7th Fleet. “The damage was significant.”
Most of the damage occurred under the waterline in the form of a huge gash to the hull near the ship’s keel, which led to a “tremendous” amount of water rushing into two berthing cabins and a machinery room, he said.
“There wasn’t a lot of time in those spaces that were open to the sea and as you can see now, the ship is still listing,” Aucoin, gesturing to the destroyer behind him. “They had to fight this ship to keep it above the surface. It was traumatic.”
The crew stopped the ship from foundering or sinking and got it back to port, he said. The destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, is salvageable, but repairs probably will take months, Aucoin said.
The collision occurred about 2:20 a.m. local time Saturday, about 50 miles southwest of the Yokosuka base.
Marine tracking data showed the container ship, the Philippine-flagged ACX Crystal, which was sailing from the port of Nagoya to Tokyo, performed a sudden 180-degree turn in the busy shipping lane south of Yokosuka and doubled back along its path shortly before the crash.
The weather was clear with a swell of about 6 feet at the time.
The fully loaded Crystal is nearly four times the size of the Fitzgerald. The Crystal is operated by Nippon Yusen K.K., a Japanese shipping company, and all 20 crew members were reported unharmed.
The impact struck berthing compartments that contained space for 116 sailors, and the commanding officer’s cabin was destroyed. Cmdr. Bryce Benson was the first to be evacuated from the damaged vessel and is being treated at the U.S. naval hospital at Yokosuka.
“He’s lucky to be alive,” Aucoin said.
Two others were airlifted off the ship and treated in the hospital for lacerations and bruises.
Because of the hour when the collision happened, many sailors were sleeping, but the ship had a “full complement” of bridge crew on duty, Aucoin said. There was no indication of any problem with the navigational equipment, he said.
U.S. and Japanese investigations are underway. Analysts said such a collision was highly unusual.
“We just don’t expect a very capable warship to be so badly damaged in a normal, peacetime environment,” said Patrick Cronin, head of the AsiaPacific program at the Center for a New American Security.