Distracted crew not yet ruled out

It's possible but not likely that visitors on the USS Greeneville were a factor, the Navy says.

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 15, 2001

HONOLULU -- The Navy has not yet ruled out the possibility that 16 civilian visitors aboard a U.S. nuclear submarine may have distracted crew members before the vessel collided with a Japanese trawler, officials said Wednesday.

As the Coast Guard continued searching for nine people missing from the Ehime Maru, and as most of the crash survivors flew home, Navy officials also acknowledged that their investigation could lead to criminal charges against one or more crew members of the USS Greeneville. But so far, they said, investigators had no proof of criminal wrongdoing aboard the submarine leading up to the Friday crash.

However, the Washington Post, quoting an unnamed participant in a closed-door briefing for members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, reported that the commander of the Navy's Pacific Fleet said he did not understand how the captain of a nuclear-powered sub had failed to realize that it was surfacing directly beneath a trawler.

Adm. Thomas Fargo's comments were the first time that a senior officer has suggested that blame may lie with the commander and crew of the Greeneville.

The skipper, Capt. Scott Waddle, has been relieved of duty pending investigations of the collision by both the Navy and the National Transportation Safety Board.

Meanwhile, Japanese officials who have been in Honolulu since the collision expressed outrage Wednesday over the latest developments, saying they could not fathom how civilians could be allowed on board an active sub.

The accident occurred when the 360-foot-long Greeneville conducted a rapid ascent -- called an "emergency blow" -- in the seas several miles south of Diamond Head. The crew was unaware that the 190-foot trawler, filled with teenagers learning commercial fishing, had drifted overhead. The attack sub's stern split the Ehime Maru.

The vessel sank within minutes, and investigators think it carried some of the passengers and crew 1,800 feet down with it.

Navy officials disclosed Tuesday that two civilians, who were described as Hawaiian business-people and community leaders along for a regular "orientation tour," had been sitting in key posts in the sub's control tower when the vessels collided.

Officials said visitors are routinely allowed to sit in the helm and the ballast-control seats to give them the sensation of guiding a nuclear-powered sub. They also said emergency-surfacing drills, which rocket submarines skyward, are a regular part of tours.

Every year, hundreds of civilians take day trips on U.S. attack submarines, and many of them get the thrill of sitting at the controls as the vessels engage in breathtaking maneuvers.

Tipper Gore, wife of former Vice President Al Gore, is perhaps the most famous of them all.

In 1999, Mrs. Gore sat at the controls of the Greeneville.

"She had firsthand experience of life aboard," including taking the helm during the emergency surfacing drill, the Navy's account of her jaunt said.

The Navy says such civilian trips are a fine way to "tell the Navy's story," building public understanding and support for the service. Visitors are allowed to help steer the boat, but only under direct supervision of a senior crewman, Navy spokesmen said. Last year alone, 213 civilians took part in at-sea tours of Hawaii-based subs, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

Speaking with reporters late Tuesday, Navy Capt. Tom Kyle of the Pacific Fleet's submarine forces said that "it would make no difference" to the safety of a trip if civilians sat in the helm or ballast positions.

"It's not germane to the incident," Kyle said, referring to the crash. "A qualified person would be in total control of that watch station, regardless of whether the civilian or non-qualified person was there or not."

Nevertheless, Navy officials said that they cannot entirely rule out the possibility that the presence of the visitors might have distracted crew members.

Yoshitaka Sakurada, Japan's parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, demanded an explanation Wednesday from U.S. officials of how civilians could have been at the controls of the submarine during its disastrous ascent.

- Information from the Los Angeles Times, Scripps Howard News Service and the Washington Post was used in this report.

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