Saturday Morning News

US Submarine Accidentally Rams Japanese Research Vessel

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KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A freak accident at sea between a U.S. nuclear submarine and a large Japanese fishing vessel has everyone wondering how it could have happened. Search efforts continue near Honolulu for nine people still missing from the sunken trawler. The boat went down in 18,000 feet of water when the USS Greeneville, a Los Angeles class attack sub, surfaced underneath the fishing boat during a routine patrol.

We have reporters all over the place right now, but we're going to begin with CNN's Kathleen Koch at the Pentagon.

Hello, Kathleen. What can you tell us?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, this accident or supposed accident at this point occurred around 7:45 P.M. Eastern Time Friday night as these two vessels were about 10 miles south of Honolulu, Hawaii.

Now, the U.S. Navy says that the stern or the rear section of the big sub apparently came up underneath and struck the 180 foot vessel.

Now to give you some perspective, at 360 feet long, the USS Greeneville is double the size of that Japanese fishing trawler. It's reported that the collision ripped open the boat's engine room, flooding the vessel, which sank within minutes.

Aboard the Japanese trawler was a crew of 20, two teachers and 13 students from a nearby fishery vocational school. And many of them did make it to lifeboats, but nine, as you said, do remain missing, including four students, two teachers and three crew members.

The Navy says that the submarine itself suffered only some superficial damage to the exterior, but nothing more, and that none of the 130 crew aboard the submarine were injured in any way.

The Navy and Coast Guard helicopters and ships continue canvassing the area. They have found some debris, but at this point no more survivors.

The Pentagon, of course, has launched an investigation into this incident. Alec Fraser, a retired Navy captain, tells CNN that typically a very strict procedure is followed every time a submarine surfaces. The waters in front of the sub are searched by sonar and then the submarine alters course somewhat so that the propellers don't disrupt the acoustic search of the area behind the submarine.

And then at that point, if all appears clear, the sub rises to periscope depth, some 20 or 30 feet, to actually visually survey the waters to be certain they're clear. And then, and only at that point, does the submarine rise to the surface.

And the Navy reports that the weather conditions at the time of the accident were overcast, that the seas were some three to four feet. So not severe weather as far as we're told, and the Navy at this point is offering up no explanations, no theories as to what could have caused this terrible accident.

Reporting live at the Pentagon, I'm Kathleen Koch.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks very much, Kathleen. For the latest on the search and rescue efforts, we're on the line with Lieutenant Greg Fondran of the U.S. Coast Guard in Hawaii. Thanks for speaking with us, Lieutenant.

LT. GREG FONDRAN, U.S. COAST GUARD: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Just bring us up to date, if you will, on the number of ships involved on the surface and in the air trying to find any survivors.

FONDRAN: Well, right now we've got a strong Coast Guard and Navy effort looking for any survivors. We're holding out all sorts of hope for these nine crew members that are still missing.

Right now there are two Navy ships out there. There are two Coast Guard cutters presently on scene as well. We have a Coast -- excuse me, a Navy helicopter and a Navy T3 doing aerial searches.

At sunlight this morning, which is about four hours from now, we plan to also have another Coast Guard helicopter and a Coast Guard C130 to continue the search.

O'BRIEN: Is this search and rescue effort being spearheaded by the Coast Guard or the Navy?

FONDRAN: The Coast Guard is spearheading the response effort and that's really what we're focusing on right now. We will do an investigation as to the cause, but right now the focus is on the recovery, the search and rescue and we're doing everything we can with the Navy and Coast Guard assets to relocate these nine crew members.

O'BRIEN: Lieutenant, you say you're optimistic you'll find survivors. What gives you cause for that optimism?

FONDRAN: Well, it hasn't been that long since the incident and any time, you know, we think there's information that we might be able to get somebody and bring them back alive, we will act on that. We're holding out all hope that we can find these nine crew members so we're going to continue looking all through the evening and first light and then if we haven't located them at that point, we will reevaluate and make a decision from there as to how we're going to continue the search.

O'BRIEN: Lieutenant, what's the water temperature there?

FONDRAN: Right now it's about 77 degrees, which is pretty standard for the Hawaiian waters. Fortunately out here because of that hypothermia is not always a big concern but as you get longer and longer into the search, naturally that kind of exposure would be working against us in this case.

But we hoping that that's not a problem and that we can find them as soon as possible.

O'BRIEN: And the rough time frame for hypothermia developing in that water temperature will be about what?

FONDRAN: I'm told about, for the average person, about 12 hours or so. But that's the average person and the will to live, you know, it's hard to put any number on that. So we're hoping that it's much longer than that, since we're about 12 hours into it as we speak.

O'BRIEN: Lieutenant Greg Fondran is with the Coast Guard in Honolulu. Thanks for being with us and keeping us updated. We know you're busy out there.

PHILLIPS: Well, President Bush, who's at Camp David for the weekend, was informed of the accident shortly after it happened. CNN's Kelly Wallace is at the White House with more on how the U.S. government is handling the accident -- Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the U.S. government has been in touch with the Japanese government. We have learned from the State Department that the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs telephoned the Japanese ambassador here in Washington last night and expressed regret about the accident.

Meantime, as Kathleen noted, the Pentagon is monitoring all search and rescue efforts. And as for President Bush, as you mentioned, he remains at the presidential retreat at Camp David in the Maryland mountains. He left the White House yesterday afternoon for Camp David.

And last night, shortly before 9:00 P.M., he received a call from his National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, who informed him about what happened. Mr. Bush is most likely expected to get a briefing from his top advisers about the situation this morning.

It is not clear if there are any plans for President Bush to call on this day his Japanese counterpart, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshuro Mori (ph). Again right now, most information coming from the Pentagon, where the focus continues to be on the search for those still missing -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Kelly Wallace live at the White House. Thanks for the update -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Now, let's take it to Japan, where there obviously is a great deal of anxiety over the fate of those still missing.

CNN Tokyo Bureau Chief Marina Kamimura has the latest from there. Marina?

MARINA KAMIMURA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

Well, many family members and many Japanese spent the day glued to their television sets really trying to discern the fate of those that were aboard the Ehime Maru. Many parents only first learned that their children were safe by identifying them, seeing their faces on public television as those first reports began to come out of the U.S.

Others hit by disappointment and they are now fearing the worst as time goes on when they were unable to locate those familiar faces on the TV screen and then officially heard that their children and other loved ones were among those that are missing.

Crisis management efforts here in Japan are being centered here in Tokyo. That's where they're being coordinated, coming out of the prime minister's office, a task force having been set up shortly after the collision occurred in Hawaii and that's where efforts are being coordinated here.

They are liaising very closely with U.S. officials on the ground in Hawaii as well as U.S. officials here based in Tokyo and this is where they are getting most of their information that is coming out of the U.S. on those rescue operations.

We are told now, however, that all of the relatives that had been waiting very anxiously at the high school where their children attended have now headed home for the night to get some rest, others to prepare for a journey to Hawaii that many of them intend to take in the morning -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Marina, there's a long history of tension between the U.S. and Japanese governments over the issue of the U.S. military and its presence and proximity to Japan and the people of Japan. Putting that in -- this incident in that context, give us a sense of how much tension already preexists.

KAMIMURA: Well, I think what we are sensing right now, rather than tension we are really seeing more a spirit of cooperation. You are really seeing these two governments work together at all levels to really get, exchange this information and really work forward on these rescue efforts to get as much information to the relatives and friends here as soon as possible -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Marina Kamimura in Tokyo, thanks very much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: U.S. submarines go through elaborate procedures before they surface to avoid hitting surface ships and it may be a while before we learn why those procedures did not prevent this accident.

With us now to explain what is supposed to happen when a sub surfaces is retired Naval Captain Alec Fraser. Thanks for coming in this morning. CAPT. ALEC FRASER, U.S. NAVY (RETIRED): Good morning.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's talk about the possibilities here and tell me if this is correct, either equipment failure or human error. Can we narrow it down to that?

FRASER: Well, as was just mentioned a few minutes ago, a submarine does acoustic searches and then it rises to periscope depth and does a visual search. If something went wrong with the equipment on the acoustic search, then they would not have detected initially the fishing boat.

However, if that fishing boat was not generating any noise in the water, if the engines weren't working, if the generators weren't working, if there was a thunderstorm going through the area, the weather was bad and the waves were creating a lot of noise, it could have been that they could not have detected the ship under those circumstances.

Second of all, the periscope look, again, depends on weather. That's a large ship. I'm surprised that they would not detect that in a normal periscope search. Again, the weather might have played a factor in that at that particular time.

When you look at the visual films that we're seeing now, it doesn't look like it's that bad, but it could have been at the time.

PHILLIPS: Is it common for equipment to fail?

FRASER: No. This was a Los Angeles attack submarine. It has lots of backup, redundancy to it. It's designed to listen for other ships and submarines in the water.

PHILLIPS: If it's proved that this was human error and it turns out that there are not nine survivors, could this individual or more than just one individual be held accountable for the deaths?

FRASER: The captain is always held accountable for his ship. In this particular case, there'll be a Navy investigation. As we just heard, there'll be a Coast Guard investigation. Both of those will arrive at who was at fault, what went wrong and the accountability will be placed on the proper people.

PHILLIPS: Is there any type of communication ever between the Navy personnel and commercial vessel crews?

FRASER: Never. There are underwater telephones that are possible between U.S. Navy ships and U.S. Navy submarines communicating with commercial fishing boats, commercial liners. It's generally only done via bridge to bridge radio once a submarine surfaces.

One other point just to mention here is that this incident happened south of Oahu. There are approach lanes to Pearl Harbor that are designated for submarine surfacing areas. So ships are warned to be on the lookout for submarines possibly surfacing in that area and they do it on a certain course at a certain speed so that people can be aware of that.

PHILLIPS: So there's usually a regular pattern of when they surface and at what time. So a commercial vessel crew could be aware of that?

FRASER: Well, there's not a time but it is a location.

PHILLIPS: OK.

FRASER: So you generally try to go in the right direction in those particular boxes that submarines surface in.

PHILLIPS: Alec Fraser, thanks for joining us this morning.

FRASER: OK.

PHILLIPS: We'll continue to follow it. All right.

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