Image copyright Reuters Image caption The USS Fitzgerald sustained considerable damage

The US Navy has announced that about a dozen sailors are to be disciplined after seven crew on the USS Fitzgerald were killed in a collision.

The destroyer collided with a Philippines container ship in Japanese waters in June.

The deputy chief of naval operations, Admiral Bill Moran, said the commanding officer and two other senior crew would no longer serve aboard the ship.

He said the Navy had lost trust and confidence in their ability to lead.

The Filipino-flagged ACX Crystal collided with the USS Fitzgerald in the early hours of 17 June in Tokyo Bay, causing a large gash below the water line of the destroyer and flooding lower decks.

"The collision was avoidable," the US 7th Fleet said in a statement, adding that "both ships demonstrated poor seamanship".

The dead sailors, aged 19 to 37, were later found in their bunks, after divers gained access to damaged areas of the ship.

The commanding officer was trapped in his cabin by the force of the collision and five sailors had to use a sledgehammer to break down the door.

"Even after the door was open, there was a large amount of debris and furniture against the door, preventing anyone from entering or exiting easily," a report into the incident said.

The ACX Crystal sustained lighter damage to its port bow.

There were no injuries among the 20 Filipino crew members on board the container ship.

USS Fitzgerald crash: In pictures

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption USS Fitzgerald damaged by the crash

Investigations into the cause of the crash continue.

According to maritime rules, vessels are supposed to give way to ships on their starboard side which is where the destroyer sustained damage, sparking questions over whether the US ship could have been at fault.</s>The top two officers and the top enlisted sailor who were aboard the destroyer USS Fitzgerald are among about a dozen sailors who will face discipline following an early-morning collision June 17 that killed seven crew members, a senior Navy officer said Thursday.

Adm. William Moran, the vice chief of naval operations, told reporters at the Pentagon that the majority of the punishments will be delivered Friday where the ship is homeported in Yokosuka, Japan. One sailor received an undisclosed administrative punishment Thursday.

[Former shipbuilder says quality of Bath-built USS Fitzgerald saved lives in crash]

The discipline will include likely career-ending actions against Cmdr. Bryce Benson, the ship’s captain at the time, and his second in command, Cmdr. Sean Babbitt, Moran said. They and the senior enlisted sailor for the ship, Command Master Chief Brice Baldwin, will be removed as leaders of the ship permanently, Moran said.

The admiral said that sailors who were supposed to be on watch in the ship’s bridge – its nerve center – also will be disciplined. Neither Benson nor Babbitt was in the bridge at the time of the collision, in which the 505-foot destroyer was struck off the coast of Japan by a much heavier container ship, the Philippine-flagged MV ACX Crystal.

The container ship’s bulbous nose ripped a 13-foot by 17-foot hole in the starboard size of the Fitzgerald, flooding one compartment where 35 sailors were inside within 90 seconds, Moran said. The ensuing flooding left disoriented sailors scrambling for their lives amid a soupy mix of personal items, electronics and mattresses, and some of the survivors were forced to seal a door with other sailors still inside in an effort to prevent the ship from sinking.

[Number of missing sailors found dead as US destroyer reaches port]

“You can just imagine the confusion and how difficult it would have been to escape Berthing Compartment 2,” Moran said.

Benson’s stateroom also was flattened by the collision, injuring him and leaving him incapacitated. He was eventually medically evacuated from the Fitzgerald by a Japanese helicopter.</s>The US Navy has announced that about a dozen sailors are to be disciplined after seven crew on the USS Fitzgerald were killed in a collision.

The destroyer collided with a Philippines container ship in Japanese waters in June.

The deputy chief of naval operations, Admiral Bill Moran, said the commanding officer and two other senior crew would no longer serve aboard the ship.

He said the Navy had lost trust and confidence in their ability to lead.

The Filipino-flagged ACX Crystal collided with the USS Fitzgerald in the early hours of 17 June in Tokyo Bay, causing a large gash below the water line of the destroyer and flooding lower decks.

The dead sailors, aged 19 to 37, were later found in their bunks, after divers gained access to damaged areas of the ship.

The commanding officer was trapped in his cabin by the force of the collision and five sailors had to use a sledgehammer to break down the door.

"Even after the door was open, there was a large amount of debris and furniture against the door, preventing anyone from entering or exiting easily," a report into the incident said.

The ACX Crystal sustained lighter damage to its port bow.

There were no injuries among the 20 Filipino crew members on board the container ship.

Marine traffic records suggest that the ACX Crystal made a sudden U-turn roughly 25 minutes before the crash. It is not known why it changed course.

According to maritime rules, vessels are supposed to give way to ships on their starboard side which is where the destroyer sustained damage, sparking questions over whether the US ship could have been at fault.</s>FILE PHOTO : The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald, damaged by colliding with a Philippine-flagged merchant vessel, is seen at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka,, Japan June 18, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About a dozen U.S. sailors are expected to face punishment for a collision in June between the USS Fitzgerald and a Philippines cargo ship, including the warship's commanding officer and other senior leaders of the ship, the Navy said on Thursday.

Admiral Bill Moran, deputy chief of naval operations, told reporters the ship's commanding officer, executive officer and master chief petty officer would be removed from the vessel because "we've lost trust and confidence in their ability to lead."

Moran said that in total close to a dozen sailors would face administrative punishment and left open the possibility for further action.

Multiple U.S. and Japanese investigations are under way into how the USS Fitzgerald, a guided missile destroyer, and the much larger ACX Crystal container ship collided in clear weather south of Tokyo Bay in the early hours of June 17.

The Navy also released a report that provided new details of the crash and its aftermath.

The collision tore a gash below the Fitzgerald's waterline, killing seven sailors in what was the greatest loss of life on a U.S. Navy vessel since the USS Cole was bombed in Yemen's Aden harbor in 2000.

The report said the collision at 1:30 am local time sent water pouring into the U.S. warship.

"Water on deck," sailors in a berthing started yelling. "Get out," they shouted as mattresses, furniture and even an exercise bicycle began to float.

Within 60 seconds, the berthing was completely flooded. More than two dozen of the 35 sailors in it escaped. The last sailor to be rescued was in the bathroom at the time of the collision.

"Lockers were floating past him... at one point he was pinned between the lockers and the ceiling of Berthing 2, but was able to reach for a pipe in the ceiling to pull himself free," the report said.

Two sailors stayed at the foot of the ladder in the compartment to help others escape.

"The choices made by these two sailors likely saved the lives of at least two of their shipmates," the report says.

The commanding officer was trapped in his cabin, and five sailors used a sledgehammer to break through the door.

"Even after the door was open, there was a large amount of debris and furniture against the door, preventing anyone from entering or exiting easily," the report said.

The sailors tied themselves together with a belt and rescued the commanding officer, who by this point was hanging from the side of the ship.</s>The Department of the Navy released a Supplemental Preliminary Inquiry into the injuries and deaths of seven sailors aboard the USS Fitzgerald June 17.

The USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship at 1:30 in the morning after departing from Yokosuka, Japan. The report’s focus was “limited to the events that occurred after the collision.”

Here are some highlights from the report:

The report states that Berthing 2, where a large hole was ripped into the starboard side from the collision, “was nearly flooded within a span of 30 to 60 seconds. By the time the third sailor to leave arrived at the ladder, the water was already waist deep.”

There were 35 sailors in Berthing 2 at the time of the collision and 28 made it out.

Debris, including mattresses and wall lockers, “floated in the aisles between racks in Berthing 2, impeding sailors’ ability to get down from their racks and their ability to exit the space.”

Sailors saved lives as water rose quickly around them

During the evacuation, two sailors remained at the bottom of a port side ladder to help others get out, according to the report. They eventually had to leave Berthing 2 because of the rising water.

Once they were through the watertight scuttle and in Berthing 1, “they continued to search, reaching into the dark water to try to find anyone they could. From the top of the ladder, these two sailors were able to pull two other sailors from the flooded compartment. Both of the rescued sailors were completely underwater when they were pulled to safety.”

A sledgehammer was used to reach the commanding officer, who was hanging from the side of the ship

The commanding officer of the USS Fitzgerald was in his cabin when the container ship collided, severely damaging his cabin and trapping him. He managed to call the bridge for help.

“Five sailors used a sledgehammer, kettlebell, and their bodies to break through the door into the CO’s cabin,” the report says. They then had to remove debris from the cabin in order to crawl in.

“The rescue team tied themselves together with a belt in order to create a makeshift harness as they retrieved the CO, who was hanging from the side of the ship,” the report adds.

FC1 Rehm saved a sailor before he himself drowned

As the water rose up to their necks, sailors “moved forward slowly and assisted each other,” as they made their way to a ladder.

A sailor reported that during the evacuation, FC1 Gary Leo Rehm, Jr. “pushed him out from under a falling locker.” Rehm’s body was the last to be recovered from the USS Fitzgerald.</s>Sailors missing after the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off Japan have been found dead, the US Navy and Japanese media says.

Seven sailors were left missing and three injured after Saturday's collision, which the US Navy said almost sank the destroyer.

The US Navy said rescue workers found the bodies on Sunday after gaining access to damaged parts of the ship.

It said they will be taken to a Japanese hospital to be identified.

The incident reportedly took place some 56 nautical miles (104km) south-west of the Japanese port city of Yokosuka, at about 02:30 local time on Saturday (17:30 GMT Friday).

Japanese broadcaster NHK said the collision led to the flooding of the crew's sleeping quarters while they were asleep.

"The damage was significant," 7th Fleet commander Vice-Admiral Joseph P Aucoin said. "There was a big gash under the water." Repairs would take some time to complete, he said.

At a press conference in Japan on Sunday, Vice Adm Aucoin would not confirm how many remains had been found so far. Families of the sailors are being notified, he said.

"This loss is something we all feel," he said.

Marine traffic records suggest the ACX Crystal, a 222-metre (730ft) Filipino-flagged container ship, made a sudden U-turn roughly 25 minutes before the crash. It is not known why it changed course.

Similar records for the USS Fitzgerald are not publicly available.

The Navy ship's starboard side was heavily damaged in the collision, but the vessel later managed to slowly return to its base in Yokosuka, with the assistance of US navy tug boats.

Japan's coastguard said the ACX Crystal had a gross tonnage of just under 30,000, about three times that of the USS Fitzgerald.

It sustained lighter damage to its port bow.

The Associated Press agency said there were no injuries reported among the 20 Filipino crew members on board the ACX Crystal.

It remains at port in Tokyo.</s>The U.S. Navy has relieved the USS Fitzgerald's commander and two other senior leaders of their duties — and it's also praising the crew for saving their ship after the destroyer collided with a large Philippine-flagged container ship off the coast of Japan on June 17.

"It was also evident from this review that the entire Fitzgerald crew demonstrated real toughness that night," the Navy said. "Following the collision these Sailors responded with urgency, determination and creativity to save their ship."

Inadequate leadership and flawed teamwork contributed to the crash, the Navy said after releasing the findings of its investigation into the crash. It also blamed poor seamanship by the crews of both the guided-missile cruiser and the ACX Crystal, whose gross tonnage was triple that of the U.S. ship.

Seven members of the Fitzgerald's crew died in the collision, which bashed in a large section of the ship above the waterline and caused extensive damage below. Water poured in through a large gash near its keel — a 13-ft. by 17-ft. opening that was made by the cargo ship's bulbous bow — as sailors responded to a collision that struck around 1:30 a.m.

"Through their swift and in many cases heroic actions, members of the crew saved lives," the Navy said. The report found that the sailors responded to flooding, structural damage and reports of a fire as they worked to restore the ship's power, propulsion and guidance.

The damage spanned two decks, and water poured into the ship — particularly into Berthing 2, which held 42 beds and a lounge for the crew. By the time one sailor jumped from his top bunk, the water was chest high, the Navy says.

Of the 35 sailors who were in Berthing 2, when the ship was struck, 28 escaped the flooding, and seven sailors died. The area flooded in a span of 30 to 60 seconds.

Here's how the report describes one sailor's escape:



"The last Sailor to be pulled from Berthing 2 was in the bathroom at the time of the collision and a flood of water knocked him to the deck (floor). Lockers were floating past him and he scrambled across them towards the main berthing area. At one point he was pinned between the lockers and the ceiling of Berthing 2, but was able to reach for a pipe in the ceiling to pull himself free. He made his way to the only light he could see, which was coming from the port side watertight scuttle. He was swimming towards the watertight scuttle when he was pulled from the water, red-faced and with bloodshot eyes. He reported that when taking his final breath before being saved, he was already submerged and breathed in water."



The ship's commanding officer, Cmdr. Bryce Benson, was trapped in his cabin, which was hit by the Crystal's bow. After sailors used "a sledgehammer, kettlebell, and their bodies" to break through the door, the amount of debris forced them to remove the door's hinges to pry it open enough for a person to squeeze through.

Those who entered could see night sky, looking through an opening of ripped steel and shredded wires, according to the report.

A helicopter was later used to take Benson to a naval hospital in Japan. After the crash, the Fitzgerald switched over to using paper navigation charts due to a loss of its systems.

The damage limited the Fitzgerald's maximum speed to 5 knots and gave the ship a 5-degree starboard list. After it arrived in port, divers recovered the bodies of seven crew members.

Benson had already been temporarily relieved of his duties due to injuries he suffered in the crash. He's now being reassigned to the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., where the Navy says he'll be able to receive medical care.

Several junior officers were also relieved of their duties, the Navy said.</s>The commanding officer, executive officer and senior non-commissioned officer of the USS Fitzgerald have been removed from their duties for cause amid the fallout surrounding the deadly collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a cargo ship off the coast of Japan on June 17.

"We've lost trust and confidence in their ability to lead in those positions and they will not return to the ship," Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. William Moran told reporters at the Pentagon late Thursday. The 7th Fleet also said several junior officers were relieved of duty.

While the final investigation into the collision is ongoing, Moran said: "We do not have to have the investigation complete to start the process."

The Fitzgerald's commanding officer, Cdr. Bryce Benson, and the executive officer, Cdr. Sean Babbiit, were both sleeping, and the master chief petty officer, Brice Baldwin, were not on the bridge at the time of the collision, according to the Navy.

The bow of the cargo ship directly struck the commander's cabin, according to the Navy's report detailing the immediate aftermath of the collision.

The report said Benson "was hanging from the side of the ship" when he was retrieved by crewmembers who were forced to use a sledgehammer, kettlebell and their bodies to break through the door and gain access to the heavily damaged cabin.

Benson was medically evacuated via helicopter due to the severity of his injuries and he placed on limited duty status on July 11.

"There are a lot of sailors" who have undergone the non-judicial punishment process and "survived and done well," Moran said, but "when you look at what happened here, it's going to be pretty hard to recover from this."

"Serious mistakes were made by members of the crew," Moran said, adding that "clearly at some point the bridge team lost situational awareness."

One additional sailor has already undergone the captain's mast. Several other sailors are due to go through the process, including the people who were on watch that night.

The Navy also plans to review its training and qualification procedures in the wake of the deadly collision, in which the Fitzgerald was heavily damaged. It will have to be brought back to the US for repairs.

"The collision was avoidable and both ships demonstrated poor seamanship. Within Fitzgerald, flawed watch stander teamwork and inadequate leadership contributed to the collision that claimed the lives of seven Fitzgerald sailors, injured injured three more, and damaged both ships," the 7th Fleet said in a statement.

The Navy's report on the immediate aftermath provides a harrowing account of US sailors attempting to escape a rapidly flooding sleeping area that filled with water within minutes after the cargo ship's bow tore a hole in the side of the Fitzgerald. Of the 35 sailors in the sleeping area at the time of the collision, 28 were able to escape, but the remaining seven sailors died.

The report describes a chaotic scene following the collision between the Fitzgerald and the much larger cargo ship. Some sailors were thrown from their beds, while others remained asleep. Sailors ran through the sleeping area, attempting to awaken their still-sleeping crew members.

"At least one sailor had to be pulled from his rack and into the water before he woke up," the report said, referring to the Naval term for a bed.

The crew had to move quickly to escape the area using a ladder before the sleeping area became completely flooded, with the report saying the room "was nearly flooded within a span of 30 to 60 seconds."

"By the time the third sailor to leave arrived at the ladder, the water was already waist deep," the report said.

Rear Adm. Charles F. Williams wrote in the memo accompanying the report that the sailors in that sleeping area "should be commended for their response to the dangerous and deadly threat they faced."

Moran said the investigation will have to be completed before any medals or awards can be adjudicated to any sailors for acts of heroism.

An acting commanding officer had been assigned to the Fitzgerald following the collision, and a permanent replacement, Cdr. Garrett Miller, has been identified and is expected to take command soon.

The full investigation will have to be completed in order for the Navy to assign responsibility for the collision.</s>WASHINGTON D.C. – The U.S. Navy has announced it’s relieved two officers and a senior enlisted sailor of the USS Fitzgerald in response to a June collision that left seven people dead.

Cmdr. Bryce Benson, Cmdr. Sean Babbitt and Master Chief Petty Officer Brice Baldwin will all be relieved of their commands, the Navy says.

In all, a dozen crew members on the destroyer face discipline as a result of the accident, which occurred when the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off the coast of Japan on June 17.

The Navy released a preliminary report into the accident Thursday, which details the crash with the ACX Crystal and what happened before and after.

According to the report, sailors inside ‘Berthing 2’, where the impact happened, began yelling “Water on deck!” and “Get out!” within seconds. Sailors staying in that area estimate the space flooded within 30 to 60 seconds.

27 sailors were able to escape, the 41-page report says. The seven closest to point of contact did not.

One of the deceased, Petty Officer 1st Class Gary Rehm Jr., lived in Hampton. Rehm’s father says his son’s shipmates reported the 37-year-old helped save sailors and died trying to save more.

The report confirms one sailor said Rehm pushed him out from under a falling locker.

Sailors moved through neck-deep water to reach a ladder and climb to safety. Two sailors were completely underwater when they were pulled to safety.

The final sailor pulled to safety had inhaled water and was pulled from the water ‘red-faced’ with ‘bloodshot eyes’.

The report also contains a number of pictures and drawings detailing the damage sustained by the USS Fitzgerald during the collision.</s>The U.S. Navy will relieve the USS Fitzgerald's commanding officer, executive officer and senior enlisted sailor for mistakes that lead to a deadly crash with a merchant ship in June.

Seven U.S. sailors lost their lives when the Navy destroyer collided with a Philippine container ship in the middle of the night off the coast of Japan.

The Navy announced Thursday that they intended to relieve the ship's leadership after it was determined the Navy had lost trust and confidence in their ability to lead in those positions.

They are among a dozen of the ship's crew who could face administrative action for their role in the collision. The Navy’s investigation into the collision continues.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
The US Navy has announced that about a dozen sailors of the USS Fitzgerald are to be disciplined in the aftermath of the collision with a container ship last June, where 7 crew members died.