U.S. sub hits Japanese fishing vessel, 10 missing

A Coast Guard vessel transports some of the injured to safety

In this story: High school students on board Bush notified Backbone of the U.S. submarine force RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. submarine surfaced into a Japanese vocational school fishing vessel and sank it off the coast of Hawaii on Friday, the Navy said. Ten people were missing from the ship.

The submarine wasn't damaged, the Navy said.

As many as 25 people were rescued, the Pentagon said. Two torpedo retriever vessels were on scene to help with rescue efforts, said Lt. Cmdr. Dave Warner, a spokesman for the Commander of Submarine Forces Pacific Fleet.

A spokesman for the Coast Guard, which was also involved in the rescue, said 10 people were missing.

High school students on board

The Coast Guard identified the fishing vessel as the Ehime Maru, a 180-foot boat from a vocational fisheries high school in southwestern Japan.

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Public television NHK in Japan said there were 20 crew members, plus two teachers and 13 students from the Uwajima Fisheries High School in the southwestern Japanese prefecture of Ehime.

The submarine involved was the USS Greeneville, a Los Angeles-class, nuclear-powered attack submarine based at Pearl Harbor.

The Navy said the submarine was on a routine operation, when it surfaced at 1:45 p.m. about 10 miles south of Diamondhead near Honolulu, Hawaii.

The Navy said it appears the stern of the submarine made contact with the fishing vessel.

Bush notified

President Bush was notified in Washington about the accident shortly before 9 p.m., said White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Fleischer said National Security Council adviser Condoleezza Rice telephoned the president from the White House situation room, where top military advisers were collecting information on the accident.

Bush is spending the weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland.

The USS Greeneville off the coast of Hawaii on Friday

The protocol for bringing a submarine to the surface is typically stringently followed, said Alec Fraser, a retired Navy captain.

The water in front of the submarine is searched by sonar, and then the submarine alters course so that the propellers don't disrupt a search of the area behind it, he said.

If all appears clear, the submarine then rises to periscope depth -- about 20 to 30 feet below the surface -- and the waters are surveyed visually to ensure they are clear, he said. Only then does it rise, he said.

Backbone of the U.S. submarine force

The U.S. Navy considers the Los Angeles class the backbone of its submarine force.

The Greeneville was the 61st of 62 Los Angeles-class submarines authorized for construction by Congress and was christened by Tipper Gore, wife of then-Vice President Al Gore, in September 1994. It was commissioned in Norfolk, Virginia, in February 1996.

The boat is equipped with the Tomahawk cruise missile system for land attack and strike capability.

The Greeneville is 360 feet long and 33 feet wide.

The boat was reported to carry a crew of 16 officers and 126 sailors. Cmdr. Scott Waddle, of Austin, Texas, is the submarine's commanding officer.

Greeneville honors a town in northeast Tennessee that is named for Revolutionary War Gen. Nathanael Greene.

The crash is the second major mishap involving a Navy vessel near Hawaii in seven months. In July, the USS Denver, a 570-foot amphibious transport dock ship, was preparing to receive fuel from the USNS Yukon, a Military Sealift Command oiler, about 180 miles west of Oahu when the two vessels collided.

No one was injured, but the 677-foot Yukon sustained heavy damage to its right side and the Denver had a 25-foot-deep gash in its bow.

A Navy investigation reportedly found the captain and first officer of the Denver should have realized they were on course to hit the Yukon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

USS Greeneville
Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet
U.S. Navy
U.S. Coast Guard

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