*EPF202 02/13/01
Defense Department Report, Tuesday, February 13
(Japanese trawler accident) (640)

NAVY SENDING OCEAN RECOVERY EQUIPMENT TO SURVEY ACCIDENT SITE

The U.S. Navy is sending ocean surveying equipment to the site of the sunken Japanese vessel Ehime Maru that was involved in a collision with the submarine USS Greenville, the Pentagon spokesman said.

The remotely-controlled surveying equipment is being sent to assist in determining the condition of the Japanese fishing trawler, which is resting in 1,800 feet of water 9 miles south of Diamond Head off Honolulu, Hawaii, and to help in locating any remains of the nine missing crew members and passengers, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral Craig Quigley said February 13 during the regular twice-weekly Pentagon briefing.

President George W. Bush told Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori earlier February 13 in a brief telephone call from the White House that the United States is doing everything it can to locate those missing from the submarine and trawler collision.

On February 9, the USS Greenville, a Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine, and the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru collided approximately nine miles south of Diamond Head. The Navy said 26 of the 35 crew members and passengers on the Japanese vessel were rescued, but nine others are missing. Since the accident, the Navy and U.S. Coast Guard have been conducting search and rescue operations for the missing.

Quigley said that an investigation -- headed by Rear Admiral Charles Griffiths Jr., commander of Submarine Group 9 -- is under way to determine the exact cause of the accident..

Quigley said the Unmanned Vehicle Detachment from the Navy's Deep Submergence Unit in Coronado, California, has sent the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Scorpio II and the Klein 2000 Side Scan Sonar System. In addition, an operating team of approximately 24 Navy personnel have deployed to Hawaii with the equipment.

The Navy has on standby in Dover, Delaware, "Deep Drone," a 7,200-foot depth rated ROV, to meet the needs for deep ocean recovery, he said.

Quigley said the side scanning sonar system will be used first to locate the vessel because it has a much larger sonar scanning range than the smaller system on the Scorpio II.

"It will hopefully further our understanding of the conditions of the ship itself," he said. "If there are any remains to be seen either in the vicinity of the vessel or something close by, this will hopefully help us in that regard, and at least it's a starting point."

He said recovery of the vessel itself would depend on its condition, and this equipment will help in making that assessment. Based on eyewitness accounts, he said the ship sank quickly, but the exact condition of the ship is not known.

Quigley said the crew of the submarine was hampered in attempting to recover life rafts from the Japanese ship because they were encountering seas of 4-6 feet, which "is a lousy platform to recover people from the water." He said that because of the smooth, circular construction of the Greenville's hull, those seas made it highly dangerous for the ship's crew to attempt to bring the life rafts alongside the submarine.

If the submarine had pulled alongside the life rafts, Quigley said, there was a very real chance the survivors in the rafts could have been further injured or killed because the sea swells would have likely slammed them against the submarine's hull.

He said the submarine commander had already radioed the Coast Guard for immediate assistance and the Coast Guard dispatched an aircraft that was already in the air to the site.

Quigley said the Navy and Coast Guard are making a "great effort to find the nine missing people. We're not ready to give up yet."

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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