Passengers' hands were on sub controls

A civilian passenger’s hands were on the controls that sent the USS Greeneville into its "emergency ballast blow" that shot the submarine out of the water and into a Japanese fishing vessel, the National Transportation Safety Board said last night.

A second civilian passenger controlled the steering and direction of the submarine. In both instances Friday, a crew member was alongside or had his hands intertwined with those of the civilians operating the controls of the 6,900-ton sub, NTSB official John Hammerschmidt said.

During an NTSB briefing last night, the most detailed yet about where civilians were during the collision that threw 35 men and boys from the fishing vessel Ehime Maru into the water, officials also said that the submarine’s sonar and periscope functions were in working order, though a video recording device in the control room was not turned on.

The latest news of the NTSB investigation came as Coast Guard officials were preparing to end their six-day search for the nine people missing from the fishing vessel.

Investigators will gather more information before determining whether the civilians’ operation of the controls or presence in the control room contributed to the collision, Hammerschmidt said.

Of the three submarine crew members interviewed so far who were in the same area as the civilians, none said there was any interference with the operation, he said.

"The importance here is determining why a submarine crew was not able to detect that they had a vessel on the surface in close proximity when they initiated emergency surfacing procedures," Hammerschmidt said.

Meanwhile, as more questions were raised yesterday about the civilians’ role in the operation of the sub, the Navy announced that retired Adm. Richard Macke had arranged for the tour.

Macke, a Honolulu resident who once commanded all U.S. forces from the east coast of Africa to the West Coast of the United States, arranged the tour for the 16 civilians as a volunteer for the USS Missouri Memorial Association, said Lt. Cmdr. Conrad Chun, spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Although hundreds of civilian guests each year take tours on Navy submarines, a furor has arisen over this particular trip because two civilians were at the controls during an accident.

The NTSB said one civilian was steering the Greeneville at the time of the accident while a crew member shadowed the operation.

The other pulled the levers that emptied compressed air into the ballast tanks, causing the sub to shoot toward the surface, but a crewman had his hands intertwined with the civilian’s to make sure the control levers were pulled only at the proper time.

The Navy has provided a list of the civilians to the NTSB but investigators have not determined whether they will be interviewed.

A Minnesota man who took a similar tour with the USS Jacksonville told the Associated Press that he and his son "were not allowed near" the controls during a similar emergency ascent, a time he described as very tense.

"The captain announced an eminent emergency blow," said Don Masterson, who was on board with his son, Lt. Commander Jeffrey Masterson. "I was standing right in front of the CON looking over the shoulder of the dive officer. The (officers) switched some switches which forced compressed air into the ballast tanks and it sounded like 100 semi-trucks letting off air. As the water left the tanks, we started shooting to the surface."

A remotely operated unmanned submersible, the Scorpio II, was taken to the sinking site yesterday, but the Navy said it was not deployed because of rough sea conditions. U.S. Navy photo

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in an interview last night on PBS’ "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," said there was no indication, "none whatsoever," that the civilians interfered with the submarine crew and caused the accident.

Similar statements flowed from the Pentagon throughout the day. The emphasis: It is too early to conclude anything about the accident.

"People who are speculating as to potential causes are speculating without knowledge as to what was happening the day the accident occurred," said Cmdr. Greg Smith, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon.

"That is why we do investigations," he said. "We want to know what happened, and I assure you this investigation will find out what happened."

Smith said it was unlikely that a guest inside the cramped submarine control room would have behaved in a way that distracted submariners. The crew of a submarine under way is intense and focused, he said, and most guests quickly realize the need to stay out of the way.

"Submariners behave in a very measured and purposeful way which in and of itself tends to be a quieter manner," Smith said. "It is something akin to an operating room."

Still, the questions as to the identify of the civilians aboard and what they may know about the accident prompted U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai‘i, to criticize Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, who was in Washington yesterday. Abercrombie told the admiral that the information should be made public, said Mike Slackman, a spokesman for the congressman.

"Neil told him that he did not feel that the Navy’s rationale of privacy held water because of the magnitude of the event," Slackman said.

The Navy would not say yesterday what, if any connection the guests have with the USS Missouri Memorial Association, where Macke is a volunteer. Macke had planned to be on board himself but canceled because of work obligations.

Last night, KITV-Channel 4 identified two of the civilians on board as Michael and Susan Nolan of Hawai‘i Kai. The station reported that Michael Nolan had tried to organize a charity golf tournament in Hawai‘i to benefit the USS Missouri Restoration Fund. The Nolans did not return a call for comment from the Advertiser.

The USS Missouri Memorial Association, which has worked since 1998 to turn the battleship into a floating museum, was unable yesterday to say if the submarine guests had contributed to the restoration effort.

"We receive numerous donations each week and are unable to make the names of these donors public without first receiving their permission," Don Hess, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the association, said in a prepared statement.

"The association has had no involvement in requesting or making arrangements for any civilians to have access to the USS Greeneville."

Neither Macke, who was forced into early retirement five years ago for making inappropriate comments about a rape of a young girl in Okinawa, nor Hess returned phone calls.

The Navy receives referrals from a wide range of groups, Chun said.

"It is not uncommon to receive referrals from retired military members," he said. "But no organization or individual arranges embarks. Only the Navy arranges embarks."

Smith said the collision with the Ehime Maru accident has not prompted Navy officials to suspend or end the day trips for civilians. One was conducted this week on the East Coast.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard said it was preparing to wind up its search for the nine men and boys from the Ehime Maru still missing and presumed dead after covering a 28,800-square-mile area since Friday.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Joseph McClelland Jr. met with the families of the missing Ehime Maru students, teachers and crewmen, as well as with Yoshitaka Sakurada, parliamentary officer of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japanese consulate general before making the announcement.

"They were very understanding," he said. "There was no disagreement to that."

But in Japan, city officials in Uwajima where the fishing school is located, were outraged.

"If they are really calling off the search, that is very offensive," said Mayor Hirohisa Ishibashi. "I cannot understand or accept such a decision."

Said Akira Kawai, a city councilman: "The Americans seem to be disregarding the value of human life. As long as there is even a remote possibility of there being survivors, the search should be continued."

Yesterday, 16 of the 17 surviving crew members of the Ehime Maru left Honolulu. The captain, Hisao Onishi, will remain in Hawai‘i for now as the investigation continues.

Although the Coast Guard is likely to call off the official search, it will remain in a five-mile area around the collision as the Navy begins its search and recovery for the wreckage of the Ehime Maru.

Navy deep-sea teams are waiting for better weather before sending the Super Scorpio, a submersible with sonar, two black-and-white cameras and two manipulators, down to the wreckage of the Japanese vessel. Families of the victims, as well as the prime minister of Japan, are urging that the vessel be recovered, an expensive and time-consuming process.

Two dozen members of the Navy’s Deep Submergence Unit attempted to use the Scorpio yesterday, but high seas washing across the deck of the C-Commando, a ship under contract to the Navy, forced them to return to harbor, said Capt. Charles Leidig, commander of the San Diego-based unit.

The Navy has not pinpointed the resting spot of the Ehime Maru, he said. The Greeneville’s sonar had some general locating data, which will be used in the search.

"We’re watching the weather very closely," Leidig said. "My crew is standing by ready to go out to sea."

The Scorpio will locate and video the wreckage to determine if any of the missing are trapped inside the vessel, he said.

The C-Commando and the USS Salvor will be used during the underwater search, Leidig said. The Deep Drone, a submersible that reached a depth of 7,200 feet, will also come to Hawai‘i from an East Coast military facility. It carries sonar, manipulators, a 35mm still camera and two video cameras.

Advertiser staff writers Jennifer Hiller, Sally Apgar and Curtis Lum and Yomiuri Shimbun contributed to this report.

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