• “Traumatic” collision that killed 7 sailors almost sank destroyer, Navy says, A-4
As a U.S. destroyer cruised off the waters of Japan in clear weather after 2 a.m. Saturday, only a few dozen of the crew of 350 were likely to be awake: standing watch, keeping the engines running, manning the bridge.
Then, say Navy officers with decades of experience at sea, there were probably minutes of sheer terror aboard the Fitzgerald before the collision with an enormous container ship — which made a series of sharp turns shortly before the collision — that killed seven sailors.
“My guess is they suddenly saw the lights of the other ship coming toward them and tried to veer off,” said retired Adm. James Stavridis. “Suddenly your ship is sinking under you. It’s terrifying.”
Navy leaders Sunday hailed the efforts of the surviving sailors who struggled to seal off compartments and pump out the water that poured in through gaping holes torn in the starboard side.
“Heroic efforts prevented the flooding from catastrophically spreading, which could have caused the ship to founder or sink,” said Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of the Navy’s Seventh Fleet. “It could have been much worse. … It was traumatic.”
With the aid of tugboats, the Fitzgerald returned Saturday from the western entrance to the Sagami Sea to its home port, the U.S. base at Yokosuka, Japan, south of Tokyo.
As hundreds of anxious spouses, children and fellow sailors waited for word, Navy divers entered flooded compartments below decks and recovered the bodies of seven sailors, according to former Navy officials.
The Navy released the names Sunday night of the seven sailors aboard the Fitzgerald who were killed in the collision with the container ship nearly four times the size of the destroyer, and considerably more cumbersome. They were all located in flooded berths, the Navy said.
The sailors were identified as Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, of Palmyra, Va.; Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, of San Diego; Ngoc T Truong Huynh, 25, of Oakville, Conn.; Noe Hernandez, 26, of Weslaco, Texas; Carlosvictor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, of Chula Vista, Calif.; Xavier Alec Martin, 24, of Halethorpe, Md.; and Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37, of Elyria, Ohio.
A collision of a U.S. Navy ship — especially a technologically advanced U.S. warship designed to be fast and agile — resulting in fatalities is extremely rare; veteran seamen could recall only a handful in recent decades.
Adm. Aucoin said he would appoint a flag officer to conduct one of several investigations that will seek to establish exactly what happened and to apportion responsibility.