Search underway for U.S. sailors missing in ship collision near Japan

UPDATE: The bodies of sailors who were missing following the collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship early Saturday have been found aboard the damaged destroyer. The U.S. Navy released a statement Sunday morning saying search and rescue workers discovered the bodies when they gained access to the flooded berthing compartments on the ship. The remains are being transferred to Naval Hospital Yokosuka, where they will be identified. The Navy will release the names of the sailors after families are notified. Two crew members of the USS Fitzgerald were evacuated from the destroyer after the collision, including Cmdr. Bryce Benson, the ship’s commanding officer, who is in stable condition at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Yokosuka. Details on the second evacuated person were not immediately available. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday: “Thoughts and prayers with the sailors of USS Fitzgerald and their families. Thank you to our Japanese allies for their assistance.”

OUR EARLIER REPORT (8:42 a.m.): Seven sailors from the USS Fitzgerald are missing after the Navy destroyer collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship off the coast of Japan early Saturday morning. A joint search by American and Japanese vessels and aircraft is underway, with the extensively damaged USS Fitzgerald back at Yokosuka Naval Base near Tokyo, the home port of the U.S. 7th Fleet. “Right now we are focused on two things: the safety of the ship and the well-being of the sailors,” said Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The Japanese coast guard said it received an emergency call from the container ship, the ACX Crystal, at approximately 2:20 a.m. Japan time and was questioning the Filipino crew, who were all safe, according to the ship’s owner, Nippon Yusen K.K. Masayuki Obara, a regional coast guard official, said professional negligence is suspected in the incident. The container ship, four times larger than the USS Fitzgerald, didn’t sustain any major damage. Coast guard spokesman Yutaka Saito said conditions were clear at the time of the collision but noted that the area is heavily traveled.

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