The U.S. Navy said Monday it had confirmed dead all seven crew members of its Aegis destroyer Fitzgerald who were listed as missing following the collision.
The response of the crew of the severely damaged USS Fitzgerald "was swift and effective, and I want to point out - as we stand by the ship - how proud I am of them", Navy Vice Adm. Joseph P. Aucoin, commander of the USA 7th Fleet, said Sunday at a press conference in front of the stricken ship that's now moored in Yokosuka, Japan.
Their bodies were all found Sunday morning in the flooded berthing compartments of the ship.
"Our deep thoughts and concerns go out to the families and friends of those who have so tragically lost their lives on the USS Fitzgerald and our hopes for a speedy recovery for those injured and in hospital following the collision".
About 200 sailors were aboard the ship at the time of the collision.
"It's a bad, swift sanction, but it sends a message to everyone else in the fleet - make sure you're training harder, make sure they call you when another ship is approaching", McGrath said. "You will see the USS Fitzgerald back", Aucoin said.
One detail already is known: The Fitzgerald's commanding officer, Cmdr.
It's unclear what caused the collision, which occurred about 2:20 a.m. local time, between the destroyer and the container ship that is about four times its size.
It almost t-boned the Navy destroyer around 2:20 a.m. Saturday, when much of the crew was asleep and the bridge manned by less than a dozen people.
"I express my heartfelt solidarity to America at this hard time", he wrote, praising US servicemen in Japan under the allies' bilateral security pact. He spoke with the docked Fitzgerald behind him, after tugboats towed it ashore in the hours after the collision 104 kilometers southwest of Yokosuka, in a busy shipping channel.
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Dozens of people also were injured - including at least 10 in critical condition - and many more have been displaced. The incident in North Kensington caused the death of 79 people , though this number may still change.
Coast guard official Tetsuya Tanaka said they are trying to resolve what happened during the fateful 50 minutes.
Two other sailors were airlifted off the ship and treated in the hospital for lacerations and bruises.
The navy and coastguard are conducting separate investigations, but the Japanese side will ask for United States cooperation in its inquiries, a spokesman for Japan's transport safety board told Agence France-Presse.
"I am heartbroken by reports that a CT sailor was killed among others who perished on the USS Fitzgerald", Sen.
Just offshore from Shimoda, a popular beach resort town on a peninsula at the western entrance to the Sagami Sea, a container ship, the Philippine-flagged ACX Crystal, was sailing east from the port of Nagoya toward Tokyo. He said that sea water gushed into sleeping compartments and that part of the ship's right side was caved in.
At today's press conference in Yokosuka, Aucoin saluted the Fitzgerald crew's "heroic efforts" that prevented the flooding from spreading, which could have caused the ship to founder or sink. "He's okay. Thank you all for the prayers", Rita Schrimsher of Athens, Alabama, tweeted after speaking with her 23-year-old grandson, Jackson Schrimsher, via Facetime.
The U.S. Coast Guard is slated to take the lead on the marine casualty investigation, he said.
Mia Sykes, the mother of a sailor who survived the direct hit to his sleeping berth, told AP that her son kept diving to try to save his shipmates until the flooded berth began running out of air pockets.
She and her brother graduated from Watertown High School.
Sykes of Raleigh, North Carolina, told The Associated Press that her son, Brayden Harden, 19, was knocked out of his bunk by the impact.
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