2 US Navy ships collide in Pacific; no injuries

JULIE WATSON

Asso­ci­ated Press

SAN DIEGO — An 844-foot-long U.S. Navy assault ship col­lided with a refu­el­ing tanker Wednes­day in the Pacific Ocean, caus­ing dam­age to both ships, but there were no injuries or fuel spills, mil­i­tary offi­cials said.

The mid­morn­ing acci­dent between the amphibi­ous assault ves­sel USS Essex and the oiler USNS Yukon occurred about 120 miles off the coast of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia as the Essex was approach­ing the Yukon to be refu­eled, said Cmdr. Char­lie Brown, a spokesman for the 3rd Fleet.

Brown said the steer­ing appar­ently stopped work­ing on the Essex, which was car­ry­ing 982 crew mem­bers on its way to San Diego for sched­uled main­te­nance. It had spent the past 12 years based in Sasebo, Japan, as com­mand ship for the Navy’s Expe­di­tionary Strike Group 7.

The Essex was trav­el­ing with a new crew that came aboard for the trip to Cal­i­for­nia. The ship recently under­went a crew swap with another amphibi­ous assault ship, the Bon­homme Richard, as part of a stan­dard pro­ce­dure in the Navy to keep its ships operating.

The Essex and Yukon were both able to con­tinue toward San Diego despite the dam­age, which the Navy said did not com­pro­mise their fuel tanks or systems.

The Yukon arrived at the Navy base in San Diego after 3 p.m. Wednes­day with its crew of 82, includ­ing 78 civil­ian mariners and four mil­i­tary crew members.

The Essex was keep­ing to its planned arrival time of 9 a.m. Thursday.

Brown said the dam­age was still being assessed. He said he couldn’t say how fast the ships were mov­ing at the time of the crash because the Navy is still inves­ti­gat­ing the cause.

The stan­dard speed for ships lin­ing up to refuel at sea is about 13 knots, or 15 mph, Brown said. No lines or hoses had been con­nected because the two ves­sels were just approach­ing each other.

The ships likely just bounced off each other, said mar­itime safety con­sul­tant James W. Allen.

Even so, he said, with mas­sive ships, it can be “a pretty hard bump that can bend metal” and cause dents. The Essex, known as the Iron Gator, resem­bles a small air­craft car­rier, while the Yukon is 677 feet long.

Navy ships rou­tinely refuel at sea while under way.

“They were prob­a­bly so close there was no time to respond when the steer­ing went out,” said Allen, who served 30 years in the Coast Guard.

Navy offi­cials said it was the Essex’s first col­li­sion. The ship, how­ever, has had mechan­i­cal problems.

The mil­i­tary pub­li­ca­tion Stars and Stripes reported in Feb­ru­ary that twice over a seven-month period, mis­sions were scrapped because of mechan­i­cal or main­te­nance issues involv­ing the 21-year-old flag­ship com­mis­sioned in San Diego

Navy spokesman Lt. Richard Drake at the time blamed it on wear and tear. 3rd Fleet offi­cials said they could not com­ment on that since at the time the Essex was in the 7th Fleet in Japan. 7th Fleet offi­cials could not be imme­di­ately reached for com­ment Wednesday.

The Yukon, which was launched in 1993, has been involved in at least two pre­vi­ous col­li­sions, includ­ing on Feb. 27, 2000, when it col­lided with a 135-foot civil­ian cargo ship while try­ing to enter Dubai’s Jebel Ali port in the United Arab Emi­rates. The Yukon sus­tained minor damage.

Less than five months later, it was hit by the USS Den­ver dur­ing refu­el­ing off the coast of Hawaii. Both ships sus­tained heavy damage.

Posted by AP News on May 16 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.