The Nation - News from Dec. 14, 1988

The captain of an Indian merchant ship says he was following a course given by the Navy and was advised he was out of the danger area 40 minutes before his ship was hit by a U.S. Navy unarmed Harpoon missile, killing a crewman. Navy officials said they could not confirm Capt. P.M. Mirchandani’s account of the accident that occurred in the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range 80 miles north-northwest of the island of Kauai on Monday. Mirchandani brought the 550-foot Jag Vivek into port in Honolulu for repairs. Lt. Cmdr. Gary Shrout, a spokesman for the Navy at Pearl Harbor, said the captain’s contention and “everything about this thing will be investigated.”