As Sailors’ Bodies Are Flown to U.S., Fitzgerald Inquiries Intensify
The Crystal reported the collision at 2:25 a.m. on Saturday, but Nippon Yusen determined that it occurred around 1:30 a.m.
Junichi Kanegae, a board member of the Japan Captains’ Association, said
that while that might seem like a long delay, the crew of the Crystal probably would have reported to the captain and contacted the Fitzgerald before reporting the incident to the Japanese Coast Guard.
By MOTOKO RICHJUNE 20, 2017
TOKYO — As the bodies of the seven sailors who died aboard the American destroyer Fitzgerald last weekend were flown back to the
United States from Japan on Tuesday, multiple investigations of the fatal collision with a container ship began in earnest.
According to Ryota Kowata, a spokesman for Nippon Yusen, the Japanese shipping company
that chartered the Crystal, the ship left the Port of Yokohama on Tuesday, but Mr. Kowata declined to say where it was going.
The United States Navy and Coast Guard are investigating, as are the Japanese Coast Guard
and the Japan Transport Safety Board, in an effort to determine what caused the deadly crash in a busy sea lane in the middle of the night.
Lt. Scott Carr, a Coast Guard spokesman, said he could not disclose details of the inquiry, but he said
that investigators would typically interview crew members and examine electronic data from the ships involved.
It was not clear how long the Crystal and its 20 crew members, all from the Philippines, would stay in Japanese waters.