Top Navy leaders are refusing to rule out the possibility that a collision between an U.S. destroyer and an oil tanker in the Pacific may have been intentional, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said Monday.
The incident, which occurred early Monday morning in Southeast Asian waters, resulted in 10 American sailors lost at sea and “significant damage” to the USS John S. McCain, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer attached to the Navy’s Seventh Fleet, according to a Navy statement.
Search and rescue operations by the U.S., Indonesian, Singaporean and Malayan navies remained underway Monday night for the missing sailors, and four other U.S. sailors were reportedly evacuated from the USS McCain to medical facilities in Singapore.
The Pentagon initiated a two-day pause in all Navy operations worldwide, beginning Monday, as a result of the incident.
Adm. Richardson, who briefed reporters at the Pentagon, described the action as a “operational pause in the near term” to allow for an overall review of “the [operational] fundamentals at the unit and team level.”
He also said the sea service was initiating two major fleetwide inquiries into the incident, which is the second midsea collision in two months between American warships attached to Seventh Fleet and commercial vessels traversing international waters in the Pacific.
