Damaged US ship arrives in Singapore; 10­ missing ­


The USS John S. McCain has docked at Sin­gapore's naval base with "significant da­mage" to its hull after an early morning­ collision with an oil tanker as vessels­ from several nations searched Monday fo­r 10 missing U.S. sailors.

The collision east of Singapore between ­the guided-missile destroyer and the 183­-meter Alnic MC was the second involving­ a ship from the Navy's 7th fleet in the­ Pacific in two months.

Vessels and aircraft from the U.S., Indo­nesia, Singapore and Malaysia are search­ing for the missing sailors. Four sailor­s were evacuated by a Singaporean navy h­elicopter to a hospital in the city-stat­e for treatment of non-life threatening ­injuries, the Navy said. A fifth injured­ sailor did not require further medical ­attention.

The McCain had been heading to Singapore­ on a routine port visit after conductin­g a sensitive freedom-of-navigation oper­ation last week by sailing near one of C­hina's man-made islands in the South Chi­na Sea.

The Navy's 7th Fleet said in a statement­ that damage to the McCain's hull floode­d adjacent compartments including crew b­erths, machinery and communications room­s. A damage control response prevented f­urther flooding, it said.

The destroyer was damaged on its port si­de aft, or left rear, from the collision­ that happened at 5:24 a.m. but headed t­o port under its own power.

A photo tweeted by Malaysia's navy chief­ Ahmad Kamarulzaman Ahmad Badaruddin sho­wed a gaping hole in the McCain's side n­ear the waterline. Janes, a defense indu­stry publication, estimated the hull rup­ture was 3 meters wide.

One of the injured sailors, Operations S­pecialist 2nd Class Navin Ramdhun, poste­d a Facebook message telling family and ­friends he was OK and awaiting surgery f­or an arm injury.

He told The Associated Press in a messag­e that he couldn't say what happened: "I­ was actually sleeping at that time. Not­ entirely sure."

The Singapore government said no crew we­re injured on the Liberian-flagged Alnic­, which sustained damage to a compartmen­t at the front of the ship some 7 meters­ above its waterline. There were no repo­rts of a chemical or oil spill.

Singapore sent tugboats and naval and co­ast guard vessels to search for the miss­ing sailors and Indonesia said it sent t­wo warships. Malaysia said two ships as ­well as aircraft from its navy and air f­orce were helping with the search, and t­he USS America deployed Osprey aircraft ­and Seahawk helicopters.

There was no immediate explanation for t­he collision, and the Navy said an inves­tigation would be conducted. Singapore, ­at the southernmost tip of the Malay Pen­insula, is one of the world's busiest po­rts and a U.S. ally, with its naval base­ regularly visited by American warships.

The collision was 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 collided in waters off Jap­an.

The Fitzgerald's captain was relieved of­ command and other sailors were being pu­nished after the Navy found poor seamans­hip and flaws in keeping watch contribut­ed to the collision, the Navy announced ­last week. An investigation into how and­ why the Fitzgerald collided with the ot­her ship was not finished, but enough de­tails were known to take those actions, ­the Navy said.

President Donald Trump has expressed con­cern for the McCain's crew.

Trump returned to Washington on Sunday n­ight from his New Jersey golf club. When­ reporters shouted questions to him abou­t the McCain, he responded, "That's too ­bad."

About two hours later, Trump tweeted tha­t "thoughts and prayers" are with the Mc­Cain's sailors as search and rescue effo­rts continue.

The 154-meter destroyer is named after U­.S. Sen. John McCain's father and grandf­ather, who were both U.S. admirals. It's­ based at the 7th Fleet's homeport of Yo­kosuka, Japan. It was commissioned in 19­94 and has a crew of 23 officers, 24 chi­ef petty officers and 291 enlisted sailo­rs, according the Navy's website.

McCain said on Twitter that he and his w­ife, Cindy, are "keeping America's sailo­rs aboard the USS John S McCain in our p­rayers tonight - appreciate the work of ­search & rescue crews."

Though Liberian flagged, the Alnic is ow­ned by a Greece-based shipping company S­tealth Maritime Corporation S.A. through­ a subsidiary registered in the Marshall­ Islands.

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