Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Naval mishaps force
safety-review order

---

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

A series of major sea accidents, including one off the coast of Oahu two months ago, has forced the Navy to take one day off to review its safety and navigation procedures.

That "safety standdown" order requires the commanders of the 21 submarines and 13 warships at Pearl Harbor to conduct a review as soon as possible.

The order was issued Thursday by Adm. Vernon Clark, Navy's new chief of naval operations. It requires all 300 ships in the fleet to take one full day to "thoroughly assess the critical areas of seamanship and navigation" before resuming normal operations.

The particulars of Clark's order were left to fleet commanders like Adm. Thomas Fargo, head of the Pacific Fleet, to implement as long as they do not interfere with current operations, said Jon Yoshishige, Fargo's spokesman.

At least five Pearl Harbor ships -- USS Reuben James, USS Hopper, USS Fletcher, USS Paul Hamilton, and USS Crommelin -- are at sea on a six-month western Pacific deployment, but won't be required to return to Oahu.

This is the first fleet-wide safety standdown since 1989, when all Navy aircraft as well as ships were ordered to take a two-day safety review.

Some recent accidents:

On Tuesday, the USS La Moure County, a Newport-class ship used to transport and land tanks, struck a reef in the waters off Chile while conducting a tank-landing operation. No one was injured. The La Moure County is based at Little Creek, Va.

On July 13, the Navy oiler Yukon collided with the amphibious transport dock ship Denver 180 miles west of Oahu as it was about to begin a replenishment mission.

After the Denver-Yukon collision, concern was raised that the accident could have been a result of the "Venturi Effect," where a powerful suction is created near the stern of one ship that can pull in an overtaking vessel at close quarters, causing a collision.

A month later, on Aug. 27, the destroyer Nicholson suffered light damage when it bumped the starboard side of the combat support ship Detroit 100 miles east of Virginia Beach off the east coast.