Ten sailors are missing and five injured after the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with a tanker east of Singapore and the Strait of Malacca, the U.S. Navy said late Sunday.
Authorities said four of those were evacuated by a Singapore navy helicopter. They endured injuries.
Search and rescue efforts were launched in coordination with local governments, the Navy said. Initial reports indicated the warship sustained damage the ship’s rear, to its port side aft.
The collision occured at 6:24 a.m. Japan Standard Time. There’s a gigantic search and rescue underway, involving tug boats from Singapore and helicopters. An MV-22 Osprey is expected to arrive shortly.
President Trump, returning to the White House from his “working vacation,” responded to word of the accident by saying, “that’s too bad.”
The warship is named after John S. McCain, Sr., and John S. McCain, Jr., both Admirals from the U.S. Navy, and the grandfather and father, respectively, of the Arizona senator.
The ship is located at the fleet’s homeport of Yokosuka, Japan. It was commissioned and has a crew of 24 chief officers 23 officers and 291 sailors, according to the Navy’s website.
The Alnic MC, the merchant vessel USS John S. McCain collided with, is a 600-foot oil and chemical tanker.
CHINA IRKED BY NAVY DESTROYER SAILING IN SOUTH CHINA SEA
This crash came times after the top 3 leaders aboard the USS Fitzgerald were relieved of command. This warship was damaged badly off the coast of Japan that killed seven sailors in June. One of its compartments flooded in about 90 seconds.
The USS John S. McCain spanned by contested man-made islands in the South China Sea earlier this month, drawing China’s “strong dissatisfaction.”
Sen. McCain tweeted Sunday night he and his wife, Cindy, were keeping the sailors in their prayers. He’d recently visited with the warship in Vietnam.
This marked the fourth accident for U.S. Navy ships in the Pacific since February.
Besides the USS McCain and USS Fitgerald incidents, the Navy crusier USS Antietam ran aground dumping over 1,000 gallons of petroleum in Tokyo Bay in Februray. In May, another cruiser, USS Lake Champlain, hit on a South Korean fishing vessel.
An active-duty Navy officer expressed concern to Fox News over the training of young Navy officers.
Its not the exact same level of training you used to get, the officer said.
Fox News’ Kristin Brown, Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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