US Navy destroyer collides with tanker off Singapore

August 21, 2017

WASHINGTON- A US Aegis-class destroyer has collided with a tanker off the coast of Singapore, leaving 10 crew members missing and five injured, the US Navy said Sunday.

The USS John S. McCain, which belongs to the Navy's Seventh Fleet and is based in Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, was involved in the collision while sailing in the Strait of Malacca to make a port call in Singapore.

The Seventh Fleet said it received the first report on the accident around 6:25 a.m. on Monday Japan Standard Time (9:25 p.m. Sunday GMT). The US destroyer sustained damage on its port side at the rear, but is still able to sail by itself.

Vessels and helicopters from the Singapore Navy conducted search and rescue operations. The tanker is believed to be Liberian-registered.

On Aug. 10, the US destroyer sailed near a Chinese artificial island on Mischief Reef, part of the disputed Spratly Islands, under the US Navy's Freedom of Navigation Operation.

The accident came after the USS Fitzgerald, another Aegis destroyer of the Seventh Fleet, collided with a Philippine-registered container vessel off the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, in June.

The collision left seven crew members of the destroyer dead, with its captain removed from his duty and some other crewmen punished. Jiji Press