Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 11, 2007

Divers inspect the wreckage of Ehime Maru, November 5, 2001

The Ehime Maru and USS Greeneville collision was a ship collision between the United States Navy submarine USS Greeneville (SSN-772) and the Japanese fishing training ship Ehime Maru on February 9, 2001 about 9 nautical miles (17 km) off the south coast of Oahu, Hawaii. In a demonstration for some civilian visitors, Greeneville performed an emergency surfacing maneuver. As the submarine surfaced, it struck and seriously damaged Ehime Maru, a high-school fishing training ship from Ehime Prefecture, Japan. Within minutes of the collision, Ehime Maru sank and nine of its crewmembers were killed, including four high school students. Many Japanese, including government officials, were concerned over news that civilians were present in Greeneville's control room at the time of the accident and some expressed anger because of a perception that the submarine did not try to assist Ehime Maru's survivors and that the submarine's captain, Scott Waddle, didn't apologize immediately afterwards. The USN conducted a public court of inquiry into the collision, the results of which placed blame for the accident on Waddle and other members of Greeneville's crew. (more...)

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