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Nine people are missing after a Navy sub surfaces off Oahu and collides with a Japanese fishing boat.
©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 10, 2001
HONOLULU -- A Navy submarine collided with a Japanese fishing boat nine miles off Honolulu Harbor on Friday, and nine people were missing after the boat sank.
Navy and Coast Guard vessels were searching for the missing people. The boat carried 34 or 35 people, and 26 were plucked from the water or life boats.
The USS Greeneville was on routine patrol south of Oahu when it surfaced about 1:45 p.m. (6:45 p.m. EST) and its stern collided with the fishing boat, said Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell, spokeswoman for Commander Navy Base, Pearl Harbor.
The submarine was not damaged, a Navy spokeswoman, Lt. Cmdr. Cate Mueller, said in Washington.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Chris Johnson said the boat sank quickly. The survivors were rescued by a 41-foot Coast Guard utility boat and a smaller Coast Guard rubber inflatable, he said.
The survivors were taken to the Coast Guard station at Honolulu Harbor's Sand Island.
It was not immediately known how many crew were aboard the Greeneville, a Pearl Harbor-based nuclear-powered attack submarine.
It was remaining on scene to help in the search for survivors, Campbell said.
The Coast Guard identified the boat as the Ehime Maru, a 180-foot fishing boat.
Public television NHK in Japan said there were 20 crew members, plus two teachers and 13 students from a vocational fisheries high school in southwestern Japan.
Telephone calls by the Associated Press to the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency went unanswered.
The Greeneville is a Los Angeles class submarine, which the Navy considers the backbone of its submarine force.
The Greeneville was the 61st of 62 Los Angeles-class submarines authorized for construction by Congress.
The boat is equipped with the Tomahawk cruise missile system.
Greeneville is 360 feet long and 33 feet wide.
The boat was reported to carry a crew of 16 officers and 126 crew. Cmdr. Scott Waddle of Austin, Texas, is the submarine's commanding officer.
The crash is the second major accident involving a Navy vessel near Hawaii in seven months. In July, the USS Denver, a 570-foot amphibious transport dock ship, was preparing to receive fuel from the USNS Yukon, a Military Sealift Command oiler, about 180 miles west of Oahu when the two vessels collided.
No one was injured, but the 677-foot Yukon sustained heavy damage to its right side and the Denver had a 25-foot-deep gash in its bow.