Ten American sailors are missing and five are injured after a
collision between the USS John S McCain and an oil tanker off the coast of
Singapore. The US Navy's guided-missile destroyer collided with the Alnic MC
east of the straits of Malacca and Singapore at 5.24am local time on Monday.
According to a statement by the US Navy, the warship 'sustained damage to her port side aft' which 'resulted in flooding to nearby compartments, including crew berthing, machinery, and communications rooms'. A joint effort by Singaporean, Malaysian and US search and rescue teams has been launched to look for the missing crew.
A photo showing the damage to the US ship's hull was posted to Twitter by the head of the Malaysian navy. The incident marks the second collision in the Pacific involving a ship from the US Navy's 7th fleet in two months. Back in June, the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship hit each other, leading to the death of seven sailors.
US navy veteran and naval warfare writer David Larter said that collisions of this nature are 'extremely rare' and that it's 'stunning' for two to have happened in such a short space of time.
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"The number of breakdowns that have to occur for something like this to happen make them a rare occurrence," he said. "Sailors monitor radars round the clock, they have multiple sailors standing watch on the bridge which also has a radar, and they have at least one lookout posted at the back end of the ship to watch for exactly these kinds of situations."
The reason why the McCain collided with the tanker is as yet unknown. The ship is named after the father and grandfather of Arizona senator and former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who is also a former naval pilot, and has seen service in Japan, the Korean peninsula and the 2003 Iraq war. Senator McCain tweeted that the crew were in his prayers.
With tensions rising between the US and North Korea, the presence of the USS John S McCain and Fitzgerald, both of which are ballistic missile defence (BMD) capable, is seen as a vital deterrence against the threat of ballistic missile launches from North Korea.
Featured Image Credit: Twitter; Image of the damaged USS John S McCainTopics: US
