Mother: Son tried to save Navy shipmates after collision
YOKOSUKA,
The ships collided about
Sykes says her son told her that four men in his berth, including those sleeping on bunks above and below him died, while three died in the berth above his.
"They did what they were trained to do," said Sykes, who said she hopes her son, from
Vice Adm.
"So the water flow was tremendous, and so 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, so they had to fight the ship to keep it above the surface. It was traumatic," Aucoin said.
On Monday morning, the
The
Aucoin said one machinery room and two berthing areas for 116 crew members were severely damaged from what he called a significant impact to its side. The destroyer returned to Yokosuka on Saturday evening with the help of tug boats.
The victims might have been killed by the impact of the collision or drowned in the flooding, said
The Fitzgerald's captain, Cmdr.
Aucoin wouldn't speculate on the cause of the collision and would order a thorough investigation. Conditions were clear at the time of the collision, though the area is particularly busy with sea traffic.
The damage to the destroyer suggests that the container ship, the ACX Crystal, might have slammed into it at a high speed, raising questions about communication between the two vessels in an area where as many as 400 ships pass through every day, according to
The ACX Crystal weighs 29,060 tons and is 730 feet long, much larger than the 8,315-ton destroyer.
The container ship's left bow was dented and scraped, but it did not appear to have sustained any major structural damage when it was docked in the
But on Sunday, a group of accident investigators from the Japanese transport ministry found damage to the container ship that had been hidden under the waterline when it arrived in
The container ship was seen making a U-turn before the collision on some ship trackers, a move that has raised questions about what happened. Both Aucoin and the Japanese coast guard, however, said it was too early to determine what led to the collision.
The coast guard questioned crew members of the ACX Crystal, and is treating the incident as a case of possible professional negligence, said
All of the ACX Crystal's 20-member Filipino crew was safe, according to Japanese shipping company
Japanese Prime Minister
"The only other day I have been so overwhelmed with joy to hear my son's voice was the day he was born," Adkison said.
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