US announces identities of 7 sailors killed in destroyer collision

The bodies of seven sailors killed in the USS Fitzgerald collision with a container ship were found in their sleeping compartments on the ship.

AFP reported on June 19 that the US Navy has identified all seven sailors killed after the destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship in a busy maritime area off the coast of Japan, confirming the deaths of the sailors for the first time.

The collision with the container ship caused severe damage to the destroyer USS Fitzgerald. (Photo: Getty)

The identities of the seven sailors include: Dakota Kyle Rigsby, Shingo Alexander Douglass, Ngoc T Truong Huynh, Noe Hernandez, Carlosvictor Ganzon Sibayan, Xavier Alec Martin and Gary Leo Rehm Jr.

Earlier, on June 18, the US government implicitly admitted that no sailors survived the collision when it announced the end of the search. However, US officials refused to say how many bodies had been found, at least until their families were notified.

The 154m-long USS Fitzgerald destroyer was commissioned in 1995 and deployed in the war in Iraq in 2003. The ship has now been towed back to its base in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo, Japan.

The US Navy said the crew's bodies were found by divers in the ship's sleeping compartment.

“The bodies of seven sailors previously reported missing were located in the sleeping compartments of the flooded ship. Divers recovered the bodies after gaining access to the ship’s interior,” the Navy said in a statement.

According to the statement, the sailors who unfortunately died in the incident were between the ages of 19 and 37.

On June 18, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, Commander of the US Navy's 7th Fleet, told reporters that the crew of the destroyer USS Fitzgerald had little chance of escaping when a huge amount of water rushed into the ship through a "large tear" after colliding with a Philippine-flagged container ship.

“It was about 2 a.m. Most of the crew were asleep. There wasn’t much time for them to escape in that kind of space,” said Admiral Aucoin.

According to Admiral Aucoin, the USS Fitzgerald was damaged below the waterline after the collision and was in danger of sinking but the crew made every effort to save the ship. The ship can be repaired but the process will take many months.

"Hopefully the USS Fitzgerald will be back in no more than a year," said Admiral Aucoin.

The US and Japan are investigating how a large cargo ship could have collided with a smaller warship in clear weather conditions. Acting US Navy Secretary Sean Stackley pledged a “full investigation” into the cause of the collision in a statement.

In addition to the seven sailors who died, three more crew members, including Captain Bryce Benson, were injured in the accident./.

According to VOV