Damaged Destroyer Heads to Port Under Own Power

The Kinkaid, a San Diego-based Navy destroyer that collided with a merchant ship off Malaysia on Sunday, is proceeding on its own power toward Singapore, its original destination, a Navy spokesman said.

The collision between the Kinkaid and the Singapore merchant vessel, Kota Petani, left one American sailor dead and five shipmates injured, according to Cmdr. David L. Dillon, a spokesman for the Commander Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet in San Diego.

Lt. Sean Michael McPhee, 24, of Santa Rosa, the destroyer’s navigator, was killed in the collision. The five other Navy personnel involved in the accident were not seriously hurt.

No injuries were reported aboard the merchant vessel, Dillon added.

It was the sixth accident involving a Navy ships and aircraft in the last two weeks. Seven sailors have been killed or lost at sea and 16 injured in the string of accidents.

The Kinkaid and the accompanying frigate Rentz were deployed from San Diego on June 16 and were en route to Singapore for a routine port call, according to the Navy.

Several fires broke out aboard the Kinkaid and the Kota Petani when they collided in the Strait of Malacca--about 240 miles northwest of Singapore. The strait runs between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra, connecting the South China Sea and the Andaman Sea.

The fires aboard the destroyer were quickly contained and its crew, with help from sailors on the Rentz, helped douse the flames aboard the Kota Petani, Dillon said.

Navy officials said the Kinkaid was expected to reach Singapore about 12:30 a.m. PST today where it was to be met by Navy accident investigation, explosive ordinance disposal and damage assessment teams that were dispatched from the Subic Bay naval base in the Philippines. They will evaluate the damaged ship.

“Until she gets into port we really can’t assess the damage,” Petty Officer David W. Morri said in San Diego.

Early reports indicated that the Kinkaid did incur damage--the collision gouged a 15 by 56 feet hole above the waterline on the destroyer’s starboard side. No major flooding was reported, Dillon said. The merchant vessel, which is also headed for Singapore, sustained major damage to its bow.

The cause of the collision is under investigation. But initial reports indicate that the merchant ship struck the destroyer, Dillon said.

“If you look at the angles, it appears that the merchant ship hit the Kinkaid,” he said.

The Kinkaid, under Cmdr. John M. Cochrane, is a Spruance-class destroyer commissioned in July, 1976. The ship is 563 feet long, 55 feet wide and displaces 8,350 tons. It is designed to provide anti-submarine warfare capabilities and it was deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet. The destroyer carries 20 officers and 297 enlisted personnel, Navy officials said.

The other accidents involving Navy ships and aircraft in the past two weeks:

- On Nov. 9, a Navy Reserve A-7E Corsair II attack jet crashed into an apartment complex in Smyrna. Ga., killing two people on the ground.

- On Nov. 1, nine sailors suffered smoke inhalation and four of those were treated for burns following an early morning fire in a boiler aboard the tanker Monongahela, some 500 miles west of Gibraltar.

- On Oct. 31, three sailors and a reported $4 million worth of non-nuclear missiles were swept by a wave from the aircraft carrier Eisenhower near Cape Hatteras, N.C. One sailor was missing and presumed dead.

- On Oct. 30, a sailor aboard the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson fell into the Pacific about 620 miles north of Wake Island and was presumed lost.

- Also on Oct. 30, an F/A-18 pilot dropped a 500-pound bomb on the guided missile cruiser Reeves in the Indian Ocean, causing minor injuries to five sailors and blowing a five-foot hole in the ship’s bow.

- On Oct. 29, a training jet crashed aboard the aircraft carrier Lexington in the Gulf of Mexico, killing the pilot and four sailors on the ship.