Missile Probe Points to Human Error

A day after a U.S. Navy missile killed five Turkish sailors and injured 13 others during an exercise in the Aegean Sea, Defense Department officials said that a preliminary investigation points to human error, rather than mechanical malfunction, as the most likely cause of the accident.

The episode occurred about 3 p.m. PDT Thursday as the aircraft carrier Saratoga was circling the Turkish destroyer Muavenet in a mock-hostile encounter on the high seas.

Under rules guiding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercises, the Saratoga’s Sea Sparrow missiles were to have remained unused in their launch canisters.

Instead, an apparent miscommunication resulted in the firing of two missiles, one of which smashed into the Turkish vessel three miles away, igniting an inferno that killed and injured the Turkish sailors. The ship’s skipper, Capt. Kudret Gungor, was among the dead.

U.S. ships in the area rushed to aid the Turkish crew and extinguish the blaze.

“I think we have more of a communication, coordination problem, a problem of humans-in-the-loop,” one Pentagon official said. “This was not to be a live-fire test.”

Three U.S. Navy admirals and a Turkish flag officer have been named to a board of inquiry--the Navy’s highest form of internal investigation--which is to convene aboard the Saratoga this morning.

The Americans appointed by the Navy’s 6th Fleet commander, Vice Adm. Joseph Lopez, are Rear Adm. Roland Guilbault, commander of U.S. naval forces operating off Spain and Portugal; Rear Adm. John Mazach, an officer on the staff of the U.S. European Command, and Rear Adm. Henry Giffin, a staff officer with NATO forces in southern Europe. The Turkish naval officer, Rear Adm. Lutfu Sancar, will serve as an observer.

The White House said that President Bush expressed his regret and “intense sorrow” over the accident in telephone conversations Friday with Turkish President Turgut Ozal and Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel.

“The President expressed profound sympathy for the families of the victims and assured the Turkish leaders that a full and complete investigation of this tragic accident would be undertaken,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said in a written statement.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: “The question of compensation and assistance is something that we’re going to have to talk over with the Turks, obviously. We want to look at the situation together and work out whatever is right and fair.”

Meanwhile, a solemn ceremony was conducted aboard the Saratoga to honor the fallen Turkish seamen. The injured had been brought aboard the carrier for emergency medical treatment, and helicopters from the Saratoga flew the flag-draped coffins of the Turkish dead to Turkey’s Aegean port of Izmir. The Muavenet was being towed back to Turkey.

Elsewhere in the Aegean--an arm of the Mediterranean between Turkey and Greece--more than 40 ships continued maneuvers as part of an exercise, dubbed “Display Determination ’92.”

The Sea Sparrow is equipped with a self-destruct feature designed to protect friendly ships that the missile’s guidance system may lock onto inadvertently. But the proximity of the Muavenet and the extraordinary speed of the missile--2,660 miles an hour--may have made such a feature useless, one naval officer said.

In the exercise, the Turkish ship was posing as an adversary. No missile firings--real or simulated--were envisioned as part of the maneuver, officials said.

The Missile and How It Works

The Sea Sparrow missile is used against attacking aircraft and Cruise missiles. Launchers, positioned on either side of the flight deck, swivel as the fire control system and radar track “enemy aircraft.” The launch button is an eight-step process with “numerous checks and balances,” one naval officer said. SEA SPARROW: Length: 12 feet Range: 9 miles Weight: 440 pounds Warhead: 66 pounds of explosives THE SARATOGA: Displacement: 59,060 tons Dimensions (feet): 1,063 x 129.5 x 37 Complement: 2,896 (136 officers) Source: U.S. Defense Dept., Jane’s Weapons Systems