AFP
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
A US Navy nuclear-powered submarine collided with a Japanese
oil tanker in one of the world's busiest seaways but no injuries
were immediately reported.
The USS Newport News was underwater when it hit the oil tanker
Mogamigawa late Monday in the Strait of Hormuz in the Arabian
Sea, said a US navy spokeswoman in Bahrain, Lieutenant Denise
Garcia, on Tuesday.
The strait is located between Iran and Oman and is one of the
busiest routes for oil tankers. The Newport News is part of a
US carrier group that is on anti-terrorism duties in the region.
But the US military said it is investigating the cause of the
accident, which Garcia said happened at about 10:15pm (2015 GMT)
on Monday.
"Overall damage to the USS Newport News is being evaluated.
The propulsion plant was unaffected by this collision," Garcia
said.
In Tokyo, the Japanese foreign ministry said the submarine's
bow collided with the stern of the oil tanker.
"Apparently, there were no injuries on the submarine or
the tanker," the ministry said in a statement, citing US
government information.
The tanker was operated by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, or K Line,
according to a spokesman for Showa Shell Sekiyu, which contracted
the vessel.
"We have learned there were no injuries and or oil leak,"
he told AFP.
Japan's Transport Minister Tetsuzo Fuyushiba also told reporters
there appeared to have been no oil leakage from the tanker.
"The ship was able to navigate on its own, and apparently
no one was injured," he said.
After the accident, the tanker was headed to the nearest port
in the United Arab Emirates, the Japanese foreign ministry said,
adding that Japan had asked the United States to investigate the
cause of the incident.
The Newport News, a 110-meter (360-foot) long, Los Angeles-class
fast attack submarine, carries a crew of 127 and is based in Norfolk,
Virginia.
The submarine is part of the carrier group supporting the USS
Dwight D. Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier. The group is deployed
in the Gulf region.
In a statement from the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in
Manama, officials said the incident "is currently under observation."
The USS Newport News "is currently on a regularly scheduled
deployment" conducting maritime security operations, which
help "deny international terrorists use of maritime environment
as a venue for attack or to transport personnel, weapons or other
material," the statement read.
On February 9, 2001 the nuclear-powered US submarine Greenville
sank the Japanese fisheries training ship Ehime Maru during a
rapid ascent off the coast of Hawaii, killing nine people on board,
including four teenage students.
Commander Scott Waddle, who commanded the Grenville and was hosting
civilian guests at the time of the accident, accepted responsibility
for the fiasco and was reprimanded, then allowed to retire from
the navy.
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