Sub crew actively attempted to lend aid

When the grieving captain of the Ehime Maru first described the terrifying moments after his ship was rammed by the USS Greeneville, and said the submarine’s crew seemed to watch without helping, Japan was outraged.

But interviews with a federal investigator, a civilian aboard the Greeneville and a source close to the investigation show that the Navy did far more to assist the rescue than previously disclosed.

The captain and crew of the Greeneville encountered numerous hurdles to a successful rescue, including a language barrier — no member of either crew spoke the other’s language — heaving seas and the sheer size of the submarine. Again and again, waves bounced off the Greeneville’s hull and back against the tiny orange life rafts, nearly capsizing those who had managed to survive.

John Hammerschmidt, part of a National Transportation Safety Board investigating team, said interviews with two Greeneville divers and its engineering officer offered details about the first frantic hour after the collision.

The Greeneville rammed the Ehime Maru on Feb. 9 during an emergency surfacing drill nine miles south of Diamond Head. Nine of the 35 people aboard the fishing vessel remain missing and the subject of a continuing search.

Search began immediately

All told, the NTSB interviewed 23 crew members from the Greeneville. Many told investigators the Greeneville began search and rescue efforts immediately after the collision, Hammerschmidt said.

Four crewmen, including Cmdr. Scott Waddle, the captain, climbed to the bridge, the highest point of the submarine.

The divers, who arrived with the captain, said they were viewing the scene seven minutes after the collision. But the Ehime Maru had already disappeared in 2,003 feet of water.

The engineering officer, who had assumed control of the submarine’s course and speed, brought it close to two life rafts, Hammerschmidt said, but "He could not communicate with the occupants because of language problems."

Susan Nolan of Hawai‘i Kai, one of 16 civilians aboard the sub, confirmed that Navy crew members tried to find someone aboard who spoke Japanese. They even asked each civilian, she said, but none knew the language. She also said that within minutes of the accident, she heard over an intercom the sub’s divers being ordered to report topside.

Five minutes after the accident, she said, the guests were moved from the crew’s mess so it could be converted into an emergency medical area.

Meanwhile, the engineering officer pondered a rescue, Hammerschmidt said. "He was concerned about the hazards of trying to get people onto the submarine because of the seas constantly washing across the deck."

Those same seas, estimated by the Coast Guard at 3 to 4 feet, were too large to allow the Greeneville crew to open a forward hatch.

"There was about a foot of water consistently over that area," Hammerschmidt said.

The only way off of or back onto the sub would be through the bridge, and only by climbing a swinging rope ladder.

With help on the way, the Greeneville crew decided the Ehime Maru survivors were better off in their life rafts.

A source close to the investigation described a more harrowing choice in the rescue: At one point the Greeneville was so close to the rafts that they nearly capsized.

"The captain’s judgement after that experience was that the survivors were safer in the rafts than if the rafts were capsized in the effort to bring the survivors aboard."

A few days after the crash, when he was interviewed by NTSB investigators, the skipper of the Ehime Maru, Hisao Onishi, said he understood why the Greenville crew reacted the way it did.

The Coast Guard, notified of the 1:43 p.m. collision at 1:55 p.m., had two rigid-hull inflatable rescue boats at the collision site at about 2:30 p.m.

The coxswain of one of the boats told the Greeneville to move away, the engineering officer told investigators.

"The submarine was increasing the seas," Hammerschmidt said. "The seas were lapping back from the submarine. The presence of the large submarine was creating a confused sea state."

Hull a safety risk

It was decided by those on the bridge, the engineering officer told the NTSB, to put rescue swimmers in the water only if they spotted someone floating. The rescue swimmer would be tethered to the submarine and would only help victims back into life rafts, because the moving hull presented a safety risk.

"The submarine’s master chief was the lead diver, and he indicated they were looking very hard for anyone in the water," Hammerschmidt said. "But they didn’t see anyone."

The Navy will convene a court of inquiry, its highest administrative fact-finding body, March 5 to examine all aspects of the accident. Three Greeneville officers, including its captain, are parties to the inquiry, which the Navy says will probably include discussion of rescue efforts.

Navy officials at Pearl Harbor steadfastly disputed claims that the sub crew did not do all it could to help.

"While I cannot comment on any specific actions, what I can say is the submarine was immediately involved in the rescue efforts, providing both the initial search for survivors and the communication to the search and rescue authorities in Hawai‘i," said Lt. Cmdr. Conrad Chun, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Chun said a lot of "misinformation" is being disseminated, but deferred to the court of inquiry as the final authority.

[back to top]