Yokosuka, Japan // The US and Japan were conducting a major search operation on Saturday to find seven missing American sailors after their navy destroyer collided with a much larger container ship, crushing the side of the military vessel.
Planes, boats and helicopters scoured the seas off Japan's Pacific coast for crew members who disappeared in the predawn accident, which also left the USS Fitzgerald's commander injured.
The collision between the 154-metre guided-missile destroyer and 222-metre Philippine-flagged container ship ACX Crystal happened at around 2.30am on Friday off the coast of the Izu peninsula, south-west of Tokyo.
The US warship – part of its right side caved in as crew members pumped water from flooded areas – was pulled by a tugboat back to base in Yokosuka, where the navy said divers were trying to reach parts of the vessel smashed in the accident.
It was not clear where the missing sailors were when the vessels collided and the search was expected to continue overnight.
“This has been a difficult day,” said Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, commander of the US 7th Fleet.
“Now that the ship is in Yokosuka, I ask that you help the families by maintaining their privacy as we continue the search for our shipmates.”
US president Donald Trump tweeted: "Thoughts and prayers with the sailors of USS Fitzgerald and their families. Thank you to our Japanese allies for their assistance."
The ACX Crystal had large scrapes on its bow, but none of its 20 crew was injured, Japan's coast guard said.
The seven missing US sailors have not been identified.
"My daughter is on the Fitzgerald," a parent wrote on the 7th Fleet's Facebook page.
“So worried. Just need to hear she is ok. Thinking of all of our sailors and their families!!”
Several other crew members were injured and had to be flown to hospital, including commanding officer Bryce Benson.
Aerial television footage showed one person lying on a stretcher and a rescuer being pulled up to a helicopter that was hovering above the Fitzgerald.
The accident happened 104 kilometres south-west of Yokosuka, in a busy shipping channel that is a gateway to major container ports in Tokyo and nearby Yokohama.
“The volume of ships is heavy in this area and there have been accidents before,” coast guard official Yutaka Saito told Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.
NHK said the massive container vessel made a sharp turn at around the time of the collision with the US warship, but its captain suggested otherwise.
He told the Jiji Press news agency his ship was “sailing in the same direction as the US destroyer was and then collided”.
Japan’s coast guard, which is investigating the incident, said it had sent six vessels, several aircraft and a team of specially-trained rescue personnel to the scene. They were later joined by Japan’s Self-Defence Forces.
“We’re going all out in the search to find these missing people ... but we still haven’t found any clues as to where they might be,” a coast guard spokesman said.
The US destroyer was commissioned in 1995 and deployed in the Iraq war in 2003.
Television images showed heavy damage to the right side of the ship just ahead of the control tower.
The navy said the crash caused “significant damage” and flooding in two berthing spaces, a machinery space and the ship’s radio room.
“It remains uncertain as to how long it will take to gain access to the spaces in order to methodically continue the search for the missing,” the navy said after the ship docked on Saturday evening.
The ACX Crystal – which sailed to a Tokyo port on Saturday – is a commercial container ship with a Filipino crew, according to its Japanese owner, NYK Line.
It left the central Japanese city of Nagoya on Friday and had been due to arrive in the capital on Saturday.
“We can’t comment on the accident as it’s being handled by the Japanese coast guard,” a company spokesman said.
“We will fully cooperate with authorities investigating the case.”
* Agence France-Presse
