10 sailors missing in latest collision with a US destroyer

AP/Washington Times:
A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer collided with a tanker early Monday in waters east of Singapore and the Strait of Malacca, and at least 10 sailors are missing.

The Navy said five others were hurt.

The USS John S. McCain sustained damage on its port side aft, or left rear, from the collision with the Alnic MC that happened at 5:24 a.m., the Navy’s 7th Fleet said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the oil and chemical tanker sustained damage or casualties in the collision.

The Navy said Osprey aircraft and Seahawk helicopters from the USS America were assisting. It also said tugboats and Singaporean naval and coast guard vessels were in the area to render assistance.

Malaysia’s navy chief Ahmad Kamarulzaman Ahmad Badaruddin tweeted that two ships as well as aircraft from its navy and air force have been deployed to help look for the missing U.S. sailors.

President Trump is expressing concern for the crew of the USS John S. McCain. Trump returned to Washington on Sunday night from his New Jersey golf club.
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The Strait of Malacca is a narrow body of water between Malaysia to the northeast and Indonesia to the southwest, with the city-state of Singapore at the tip of the Malay Peninsula.

The collision is the second involving a ship from the Navy’s 7th Fleet in the Pacific in two months. Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship hit each other in waters off Japan.
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A second such collision is starting to look like a pattern.  This is a tragedy for the sailors involved, but it also takes two ships out of commission for a potential conflict with North Korea.  This Navy inquiry should not be limited to the command and crew of the ship but should also look at the pattern of collisions.  That would include a look at any transfers of money or other things of value to the crew of the ships that collided with the destroyers.

Some are suggesting the US ships may have had their electronic navigation system hacked by China.

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