Submariner dies after
vessel runs aground

HONOLULU -- A sailor aboard a nuclear submarine has died of injuries received when the USS San Francisco ran aground while submerged about 350 miles south of Guam, the Navy said yesterday.

Twenty-three other crew members were being treated for various ailments, including a back injury, broken bones, cuts and bruises, said Jon Yoshishige, a spokesman for the Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor.

The name of the sailor who died was being withheld pending a mandatory 24-hour waiting period that began when next of kin were notified, Yoshishige said.

Navy medical personnel, including a doctor, went aboard the submarine the day after it sustained serious damage, he said.

The full extent of the damage won't be known until the 360-foot submarine with a crew of 137 reaches its home port in Guam on Monday afternoon, the Navy said.

There was no information available on what the submarine struck, Yoshishige said, and there were no reports of damage to the San Francisco's reactor plant. It was operating normally as the submarine made its way on the surface of the Pacific Ocean, he said.

The sub was being escorted by the Coast Guard cutter Galveston Island and the USNS Stockham, while the USNS Kiska and military aircraft continued to assist as required, Yoshishige said.

Located west of the international date line, Guam is a U.S. territory about 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii.