Remains of ‘some’ sailors found on U.S. Navy destroyer

The remains of some of the 10 sailors missing since a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer collided with an oil tanker near Singapore have been found in compartments on the damaged ship, the commander of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet said Tuesday.

The search for other missing sailors from the USS John S. McCain was ongoing, The Washington Post reported.

“We’re always hopeful that there are survivors,” Adm. Scott Swift said at a news conference in Singapore. “Until we have exhausted any potential of recovering survivors or bodies, the search and rescue efforts will continue.”

Swift also said he had ordered a special review of naval operations at the U.S. Navy’s main bases in Japan at Yokosuka and Sasebo after four incidents this year off Japan and South Korea — two of them involving Yokosuka-based ships.

Ten sailors have been missing since the McCain and a Liberian-flagged oil tanker — more than three times the destroyer’s size — collided at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca before dawn Monday.

Singaporean and Malaysian navy ships and helicopters had joined American aircraft searching for the sailors at sea. But earlier Tuesday, Navy and Marine Corps divers were sent into the compartments in the damaged part of the destroyer that had been sealed to stop the ship from being flooded. The ship is now moored at Changi naval base in Singapore.

Source : Mena