The Pentagon has ordered a temporary halt to US navy operations around the world and a full safety review, after the second serious collision in two months involving its ships in the Pacific.
Ten American sailors are missing and five injured after the guided-missile destroyer USS John S McCain collided with an oil tanker off the coast of Singapore early on Monday morning local time. Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship hit each other in waters off Japan, in an accident the US navy has conceded was caused by poor leadership and seamanship by senior officers.
“This is the second collision in three months and is the last in a series of incidents in the Pacific theater,” the commander of naval operations, Adm John Richardson, said in a statement. “This trend demands more forceful action.”
Richardson ordered an “operational pause” in fleet operations that is expected to take one day for urgent safety checks while a more comprehensive review gets under way. It is believed fleet commanders have discretion over when to take the one-day pause, according to their own operational needs, but it should be in the next two weeks.
“I want our fleet commanders to get together with their leaders and their commanders to ensure we’re taking all appropriate and immediate actions to ensure safe and effective operations around the world,” Richardson added. The review, he added would assess “the contributing factors, the root causes of these incidents”.
Source: The Guardian Online
