Navy Officer Dies in Car Wreck on Base

A petty officer serving at Point Mugu was killed Friday in an early-morning traffic accident on the naval base, coroner’s officials said.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Stan Chaichana’s military car was found flipped over in a water-filled drainage ditch along Perimeter Road about 6:25 a.m., naval base officials said. Coroner’s examiners said the 36-year-old native of Bangkok, Thailand, drowned.

Chaichana, a nine-year Navy man who had been stationed at Point Mugu since July and assigned to the base’s security department, was last seen about 5:20 a.m. Friday after a superior asked him to open a gate.

Chaichana drove a military-owned Ford Explorer toward the gate, but never made it. “When he didn’t come back, the watch commander went looking for him and discovered the accident scene,” said Teri Reid, deputy public affairs officer for the base.

Base officials are still investigating what caused Chaichana’s car to run off the road and plunge into the channel filled with about 4 feet of water. No other cars appeared to have been involved in the crash, Reid said.