US submarine, Japanese ship collide

The bow of the nuclear-powered Newport News was traveling submerged when it hit the stern of the supertanker Mogamigawa as the vessels were passing through the Straits on Monday night, causing minor damage to the Japanese vessel, the US Navy and Japan’s Foreign Ministry said. The Japanese government said it was informed of the crash by the Navy and the US Embassy in Tokyo.

The tanker, operated by Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., was able to continue to a nearby port in the United Arab Emirates, the statement said.

Commander Kevin Aandahl of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain confirmed there had been a crash and that there were no injuries aboard either ship. Aandahl said the sub had surfaced and its crew was evaluating damage. The ship’s nuclear propulsion plant was undamaged. The Newport News is based in Groton, Connecticut, and is part of a US-led multinational task force patrolling the Persian Gulf and nearby seas. It has a crew of 127.

The Mogamigawa was traveling from the Gulf to Singapore and was carrying a crew of eight Japanese and 16 Filipinos, and is expected to arrive in the port of Khor Fakkan later Tuesday, company spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

She said crewmembers reported a sudden large bang and shaking just before the collision, but no other details were immediately available.

The Japanese government has asked the US side to investigate. Aandahl said a Navy investigation would begin shortly.

In February 2001, a US Navy submarine rammed into a Japanese fishing vessel in waters off Hawaii, killing nine people. The American captain’s delay in apologising for the crash triggered protests by the victims’ families.

The 54-kilometer-wide Straits of Hormuz forms the entrance to the Gulf, through which about two-fifths of the world’s oil supplies pass. Cargo vessels headed for Dubai, the world’s largest manmade port, also pass through the straits, bordered by Iran and Oman.

US naval vessels have been involved in previous collisions with commercial ships in the busy shipping lanes around the Persian Gulf. In September 2005, the US nuclear submarine Philadelphia collided with a Turkish cargo ship in the Gulf, causing no injuries.

US and coalition ships started patrolling the coast of Somalia in recent weeks in a bid to capture any al-Qaeda suspects fleeing Ethiopia’s December invasion.

–JIM KRANE