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    • Sailor missing as Japanese minesweeper catches fire and capsizes
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    Sailor missing as Japanese minesweeper catches fire and capsizes

    Online Niel Posted on

    A Sugashima-class minesweeper JS Ukushima suffered an engine room fire on the morning of November 10 off Oshima Island, off Fukuoka Prefecture, while preparing for an exercise with the US Navy. The exercise was later cancelled.

    In a tragic incident, a JMSDF (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force) sailor is now missing after a minesweeper, JS Ukushima, caught fire on November 10, 2024 and later sank off the coast of Fukuoka Prefecture, Asahi Shimbun reported. Sugashima-class minesweeper carrying a crew of 38 to 40, respectively rEPORTSexperienced an engine room fire at about 9:40 a.m. while about 2.5 km from Oshima Island during a training exercise.

    The ship immediately sent a distress call to the JCG (Japan Coast Guard) 7th Regional Headquarters. JS Ukushima had left the Shimonoseki base in Yamaguchi Prefecture and was sailing to Kagoshima Prefecture for the exercise with the US Navy, Kyodo news said. The exercise was later canceled following the accident.

    The missing crew member has been identified as Petty Officer 3rd Class Tatsunori Koga, 33. Another JMSDF the personnel are recovering at a hospital and both have been assigned to the engine room. The incident is reminiscent of the fire aboard a US Navy amphibious ship, the USS Bonhomie Richardwhich was heavily damaged by a fire on board in July 2020.

    The 54-meter-long, 510-ton displacement mine tractor was built with a wooden hull to withstand magnetic mines.

    Rescue efforts

    The inferno lasted for nearly six to seven hours, with JCG ships and another JMSDF mine dear, JS Toyoshima, joining the firefighting and rescue efforts. of Japan NHK news posted a video on its X page, showing the minesweeper on fire at 7pm on Sunday. Another video showed the upturned bow of the ship barely sticking above the water.

    A set of images and a video of “OSINTdefender” showed Toyoshima and Ukushima side by side, transferring survivors, with heavy, thick smoke billowing from the engine exhaust behind the bridge. This could suggest that the fire must have intensified after efforts were initially focused on rescue, following the fire’s extinguishment.

    While the survivors were successfully evacuated to Toyoshima, by midnight on November 11, the fire was extinguished. At about 8:30 the next morning, Ukushima capsized and sank.

    JMSDF divers and JCG ships are now engaged in search of the missing crew. It is unclear whether the JMSDF will rescue the ship. The reports cited a statement from JMSDF Chief of Staff Admiral Akira Saito, who said the search for the crew member would continue.

    JS Toyoshima near JS Ukushima, transferring survivors. (Image credit: X)

    Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said during a press conference on Monday: “The Japanese government will do its best to search for the missing personnel and take all possible measures to determine the cause and take preventive measures.”

    NHK news on 12 November, reported that the underwater search was moving from “around the sunken vessel” “to nearby waters”. The ship came to rest on the seabed “bottom up” at a depth of “about 40 meters”.

    The decision to move to a different search area was made after “divers entered the ship and searched mainly in the engine room, but could not find anything,” NHK added. Another NHK report said the JMSDF plans to use a UUV “equipped with a camera” to conduct the search.

    The JMSDF has now set up a committee and launched an inquiry into the causes of the fire.

    Exercise with the US Navy

    The training trip was part of preparations for joint exercises with the US Navy scheduled for later this month. Stars and Stripes said the joint exercise, focused on me, was later called off. A JMSDF statement also defined the exercise as MCM/EOD (Mine Counter Measures/Explosive Ordnance Detonation) exercises, adding that it was scheduled from November 16 to November 26.

    Conformable in a Nov. 5 JMSDF press release, the exercise was part of a larger bilateral exercise with the US Navy to improve the JMSDF’s tactical capabilities and interoperability. The JMSDF component consisted of four minesweepers and an aircraft led by Rear Admiral Ikeuchi Izuru, Commander of the Mine Warfare Force. Specific exercises involved mine laying, mine clearance, mine hunting and EOD (Explosive Ordnance Detection).

    USN detachment consisting of a surface mine dredger and EODT (Explosive Ordnance Detection Team) and UUV Operators (Unmanned Underwater Vehicles), led by Captain Antonio L. Hyde, Commander Mine Countermeasures Squadron 7.

    USS Bonhomme Richard

    That The aviator reported at the time, the incident on USS Bonhomme Richard at the San Diego Naval Base on July 12, 2020, 21 people were injured, but there were no casualties. The fire, said Rear Admiral Philip Sobeck, then commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3, is believed to have started in a lower cargo hold, “a deep V-shaped area” where “marine equipment and vehicles are stored.”

    A story by Andrew Dyer from San Diego Tribune quoted Sobeck, who added that the fire was not fueled by fuel oil, hazardous materials or electrical causes, calling it an Alpha Class fire. This meant that the fire started when paper, cloth, rags or other non-toxic materials ignited on board. There were 160 American servicemen and civilians on board the Bonhomme Richard that Sunday morning when the fire started. Repairs to the ship were estimated to take up to seven years and cost up to $3.2 billion, leading to her decommissioning on 15 April 2021 and subsequent sale for scrap.

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