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The Navy is considering possible criminal charges against the captain of the nuclear attack submarine USS Greeneville that collided with a Japanese fishing vessel six days ago off the coast of Oahu.
The Navy acknowledges that
civilians on board might have
distracted crew members
Survivors recount disaster
By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinCmdr. Scott Waddle, skipper of the 360-foot Greene-ville since March 1999, was relieved and reassigned on Saturday following Friday's accident where the Ehime Maru sank 10 minutes after being struck. Nine people are still missing.
The decision on whether to file charges will probably be made by Rear Adm. Charles Griffiths Jr., who as commander of Submarine Group Nine based at Bangor, Wash., is in charge of all ballistic missile submarines assigned to the Pacific Fleet. He was sent to Hawaii by Adm. Thomas Fargo, Pacific Fleet commander, to head the accident inquiry board.
In Washington today, Navy officials acknowledged the possibility that 16 civilians aboard Greeneville could have distracted crew members, but said as yet there is not any evidence of that.At least two civilians were at some of the controls of the nuclear attack submarine before it collided with Ehime Maru.
But Cmdr. Bruce Cole, Pacific Fleet spokesman in Hawaii, said "they were always under the control and supervision of a qualified operator."
It has been known since the collision occurred between the Greeneville and the Ehime Maru that 16 civilians were guests of the sub's skipper .
But the Navy had previously maintained that their presence did not affect the operations of the 360-foot Greeneville as it went through the procedures of demonstrating an emergency surfacing maneuver.
One of the questions that needs to be answered is how many of the 16 civilians were in the Greeneville's small control room when the sub was surfacing.
The Navy has refused to release the names of the 16 civilians, citing privacy concerns.But CNN, the National Journal News Service and the Star-Bulletin filed a Freedom of Information request with the Navy requesting the passenger manifest. The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii criticized the National Journal for identification of civilians at the helm and for linking the group to the collision.
At a news conference at the Japanese Cultural Center, the Ehime Maru's first-class navigator, Ryoichi Miya, became angry upon hearing that civilians may have been in the submarine's control room at the time of the accident.
"If that is true, that would be unforgivable," Miya said, visibly upset. "The crew is still grieving for the missing men."
Yesterday, all Pacific Fleet spokesman Cole would say is that the 16 were business and community leaders from the mainland. He again emphasized that there were no politicians or celebrities in the group.
The National Transportation Safety Board has not decided whether it will interview any of the 16 civilians who were aboard the Greeneville.
They were accompanied by a senior Navy officer who is a member of the Pacific Submarine Force staff acting as the group's escort.
Cole said it is not unusual to have civilians sitting at these watch stations while the submarine is conducting routine maneuvers.
Capt. Tom Kyle, deputy chief of staff for Commander in Chief, Pacific, says watch stations on the sub relevant to the investigation are: Where watch station responsibilities lie
"There are qualified operators to keep things steady as it (sub) comes up," Cole said.
He said the Navy's investigation into the accident will determine exactly what the civilians were doing.
Last year, 213 civilians took part in at-sea tours on Hawaii-based submarines, the NTSB reported.
Watch stations were identified as the helm, sonar and ballast control positions in the sub's control room which is commanded by the vessel's officer of the deck.
In the past, civilians have been allowed to sit at a sub's helm position which controls the bow and rudder movement of the boat, basically steering the sub. They also have been allowed to sit at the vessel's sonar station and monitor the outside area.
Cole said two civilians were at these "watch" positions when the 6,900-ton Greeneville blew its ballast tanks, quickly surfacing and hitting the 190-foot Japanese vessel with the force of a torpedo.
But it is not known if the civilians left the stations before the sub broke the surface of the ocean.
"Thousands of people embark on Navy vessels," Cole said, "to learn firsthand of the operations and meet our sailors."
On Friday, the 16 civilians boarded the sub at 8 a.m. at Pearl Harbor and were supposed to leave at 3 p.m. The accident forced them to spend a night on the Greeneville as the sub and its crew participated in the search for survivors.
The civilians were taken off the Greeneville before the submarine entered the Pearl Harbor channel and were taken into the naval base on a torpedo retriever boat.
Nine of the 35 Japanese crew members are still unaccounted for.
Four Japanese teen-agers are among the missing. They were among the 13 Uwajima Fisheries High School students who were on the educational voyage. Also missing are two teachers, and three crew members. The vessel was returning to Japan.
After making a passive sonar search for the possibility of ships above, the Greeneville is said to have made two visual searches of the area with its periscope before attempting the "emergency main ballast blow" maneuver.
That meant the Greeneville then descended to about 400 feet and practiced a procedure used to bring the sub to the surface quickly during an emergency.
Yesterday, a team of submarine rescue specialists arrived from San Diego with a remote operated vehicle known as "Scorpio" and a side scan sonar unit. The equipment will be used to search for the Ehime Maru, believed to have sunk in 1,866 feet of water 10 miles south of Oahu.
Cole said a deeper diving unmanned drone is on standby at Dover Air Force Base, Del. "It is being prepared for shipment," Cole said.
That drone can dive as deep as 7,200 feet. The Scorpio's maximum depth is 5,000 feet.
The Scorpio was used in the salvage attempts of Alaska Airlines off the coast of California a year ago. That operation took the Scorpio down 700 feet of water.
Friday's collision comes five months after Adm. Vernon Clark, chief of naval operations, ordered a one-day "safety stand down" to review internal procedures following six major ship collisions last year.
The Greeneville was commissioned in February 1996.
