Topic: And just how fast were you going, Mister?

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Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2005 11:10 a.m. EST
Admiral's E-mail Reveals Sub Crash Injuries

An "incredibly hard" collision with part of an undersea mountain injured 60 members of the crew of 137 in a U.S. nuclear submarine, not merely the 23 the Navy originally reported as casualties of the accident last Saturday in the South Pacific, 360 miles southeast of Guam.



E-mail messages from Rear Adm. Paul F. Sullivan, the commander of submarines in the Pacific, obtained by the New York Times, revealed that the sub reportedly struck an undersea mountain that did not appear on the charts.

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According to the Times, one sailor, Machinist Mate 2nd Class Joseph A. Ashley, died of injuries as the crew struggled to lift him through a hatch in rough seas trying to get him to a helicopter hovering above the crippled sub.

Daniel L. Ashley, the sailor's father, told the Times he had been told that as the helicopter hovered, crew members could not get the sailor out of the sub before he died. "They tried numerous times to maneuver him through various hatches," Mr. Ashley said. "But it just didn't happen."

Ashley added that the submarine's captain, Cmdr. Kevin Mooney, told him by phone on Monday that among the injured crew members, "there were a lot of broken fingers, broken arms and legs and one fractured back."

The e-mail messages reported that 23 crewmen were hurt seriously enough that they were unable to stand their watch duties as the submarine limped back to Guam. Navy officials told the Times yesterday that the rest of the injuries were minor.

The sub, on its way to Australia, suffered serious damage, with the outer hull ripped open at the submarine's nose, causing flooding in a dome with sonar sensors and in four of the ballast tanks used to submerge the vessel or take it to the surface.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/1/12/111733.shtml