U.S. Vice Admiral says bodies of missing sailors found in flooded compartments

The bodies of missing sailors were found in flooded compartments of the USS Fitzgerald, which came close to sinking after a collision with a container ship off Japan tore a gash under the warship's waterline, the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet commander said on Sunday.

Vice Admiral Joseph P. Aucoin declined to say how many of the seven missing sailors had been recovered, but Japanese media said all had died. “Out of concern for the families and the notification process, I will decline to state how many we have found at this time,” Vice Admiral Aucoin told a news conference, adding that the search at sea had ended.

Desperate efforts

The USS Fitzgerald could have foundered, or even sunk, but for the crew’s desperate efforts to save the ship, he said. “The damage was significant. There was a big gash under the water,” Vice AdmiralAucoin said at Yokosuka naval base, home of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, the docked Fitzgerald behind him. “A significant portion of the crew was sleeping” when the destroyer collided with the Philippine-flagged container ship, destroying the commander’s cabin, he said. The Fitzgerald is salvageable, he said, but repairs will likely take months. “Hopefully less than a year. You will see the USS Fitzgerald back,” Vice Adm. Aucoin said.

Multiple U.S. and Japanese investigations are under way on how a ship as large as the container could ram into the warship in clear weather.

Vice Adm. Aucoin was asked if damage on the starboard side indicated the U.S. ship could have been at fault, but he declined to speculate on the cause of the collision. Maritime rules suggest vessels are supposed to give way to ships on their starboard.

The Seventh Fleet said in a statement earlier on Sunday: “Divers were able to access the space and found a number of bodies.” They were transferred to a U.S. naval hospital for identification.