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9 missing as sub hits trawler
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JAPAN yesterday urged the United States to consider raising a trawler struck and sunk by a US nuclear submarine off Hawaii as families of the students and others missing left home to be close to the scene of the tragedy.
Search vessels and helicopters have been scouring the choppy seas despite fading hopes of finding the nine missing Japanese from among the 35 people aboard the trawler, the Ehime Maru, when it sank on late Friday.
Those missing are four 17-year-old fisheries students, two of their teachers and three crew members and all may have gone down with the ship.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said it might be necessary to raise the Japanese trawler that sank in 550 metres of water.
The USS Greeneville, a 110-metre, 6,900-tonne attack submarine based at nearby Pearl Harbour, crashed into the 499-tonne trawler when it surfaced on Friday afternoon.
The ship sank in minutes in waters 15km south of Diamond Head off Honolulu, Hawaii. Twenty-six people were rescued but fears were mounting on both sides of the Pacific that time may be running out for finding any survivors.
US President George W Bush and the US Navy have expressed regret to Japan as the authorities launched investigations into the cause of the Friday collision.
Navy officials said there was minor damage to the submarine's rudder and that its “skin” on the port side of the stern was scraped but “there's nothing that's preventing it from safe operation”.
In another development, the gaffe-prone Mori came under fire yesterday from politicians and press for continuing with a game of golf after hearing the sinking of the trawler packed with Japanese students.
THE 35 people on board the 180-feet (54-metre)Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru heard a loud thump and felt a shudder on Friday. The lights went out and sea water flooded in, mixing with noxious diesel fuel as a US submarine crashed into the hull from the depths of the Pacific.
Those who could, scrambled to the decks and jumped into the choppy 77-degree (25 Celsius) waters to save their lives. The 26 who made it crawled into automatically inflated life rafts floating in a field of debris as their ship sank in 1,800 feet (540 metres) of water 15 miles (24 kilometres) southeast of Pearl Harbour.
On Saturday, Coast Guard and Navy search crews sought other survivors among the nine still missing, including three crewmen, two teachers and four high school students
A search of 1,453 square miles (3,760 square kilometres) by Saturday morning had turned up no sign of survivors, said Lt Greg Fondran, spokesman for the US Coast Guard.
The nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Greeneville was on a routine one-day training mission last Friday afternoon when it surfaced underneath the Ehime Maru, splitting it open and sinking it within 10 minutes.
The survivors, many soaked in diesel fuel, were rescued by two Coast Guard boats that responded to an emergency locator signal activated when the boat sank.
They were taken to the Coast Guard's Sand Island base in Honolulu Harbour, and several were treated at hospitals for minor injuries and exposure to the fuel.
A dozen stayed overnight at a hotel, emerging on Saturday morning for breakfast. Having lost everything, they still wore blue jumpsuits issued at the Coast Guard base.
``I want to express my apologies to those involved in the incident, their families and the government of Japan.'' said Adm Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of the US Pacific Fleet.
The Navy and National Transportation Safety Board are conducting investigations of why the submarine surfaced without noticing the boat.
The Ehime state government set up a crisis centre to assist families. School and government officials were expected to arrive in Honolulu on Saturday. Family members were to arrive yesterday.
The Greeneville stayed at the search scene overnight and returned to port under its own power on Saturday morning, Fargo said. The submarine's rudder and port side showed scrapes from the collision, he said.
The Greeneville was commissioned in February 1996. It is 360 feet (108 metres) long, has a diameter of 33 feet (9.9 metres) and displaces 6,900 tonnes submerged.
(SD-Agencies)
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