Stray U.S. Missile Hits Turkish Ship

A missile fired by the U.S. aircraft carrier Saratoga accidentally struck a Turkish destroyer in the Aegean Sea on Thursday night, killing five people and injuring 15, U.S. military officials reported.

The accident occurred about 3:11 p.m. PDT, just after midnight in the Aegean, while the ships were participating in a NATO exercise dubbed Display Determination 92--a multi-national naval exercise carried out to demonstrate the ability of allied ships to work together.

The Turkish ship, the Muavenet, was about three miles away when the Saratoga fired one and possibly two short-range Sea Sparrow missiles, said Pentagon spokeswoman Maj. Kathryn Ingram.

One missile struck the bridge of the Muavenet, which caught fire and burned for about 10 minutes before the blaze was controlled, said Cmdr. Chuck Connor of the U.S. Navy’s Atlantic Command in London. The fate of the second missile, if indeed it was launched, was not known.

The Turkish General Staff said the ship’s captain, Commander Kudret Gungor, was among the dead.

The number of Turkish fatalities ranged from three to nine in early reports from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s southern headquarters in Naples, Italy. By late Thursday, NATO was reporting five confirmed deaths. The extent of injuries to the 15 injured sailors could not be immediately determined. An unknown number of sailors were knocked into the sea, defense officials said.

Two U.S. ships, the Thomas Gates, a frigate, and the Iwo Jima, an amphibious ship, provided medical assistance and helped evacuate injured sailors, Ingram said.

U.S. forces also landed a communications team aboard the 376-foot destroyer, which is a former U.S. Navy vessel that was commissioned in 1944 as the Gwin and transferred to Turkey in 1971 after being converted for mine laying.

The crew of the Belknap, flagship of the U.S. 6th Fleet, also responded and launched an investigation of the incident. NATO also will conduct an investigation, Ingram said. There were no injuries aboard the Saratoga.

The Turkish armed forces said that a joint Turkish-American investigation had started.

The ships were about 80 miles off the coast of Izmir, Turkey, in the Aegean, an arm of the Mediterranean between Turkey and Greece.

It was unclear whether the missile or missiles were inadvertently launched or were fired deliberately as part of the maneuvers and hit the ship accidentally. Ingram characterized the launching as “accidental.”

A statement by the Turkish armed forces read on state radio said: “First investigations show that the regrettable incident was the result of an error by the American ship . . . no firing was planned during the exercise.”

The Sea Sparrow is a short-range weapon usually launched in pairs to defend against aircraft or missile attack. During maneuvers, Sea Sparrows are often fired at aerial targets launched by other ships, a naval expert said.

The accident was the latest in a series of tragedies in recent years involving the Navy, and the Saratoga in particular. In December, 1990, just before the start of the Persian Gulf War, 21 sailors from the Saratoga drowned after their ferry overturned while on a port visit to Haifa, Israel.

The Saratoga, a conventionally powered carrier based in Jacksonville, Fla., suffered the first losses of the war when two of its planes went down on the first day of hostilities.

In November, 1989, the Navy ordered an unprecedented two-day suspension of normal operations after 10 accidents at sea and in the air within a 10-day period. Ten Navy personnel were killed and at least 71 injured in that series of accidents.

Special correspondent Hugh Pope in Turkey contributed to this report.

Turkish Ship Hit

A sea Sparrow missile from the U.S. aircraft carrier Saratoga hit a Turkish destroyer in the Aegean Sea. The accidental launch killed some Turkish crew members.