Pearl Harbor, Hawaii — Lawyers for submarine officers under investigation for the sinking of a Japanese fishing boat sought to shift the blame Thursday to a crewman who failed to report that the ship was nearby.
As testimony at a rare Navy court of inquiry entered its fourth day, criticism mounted of a fire control technician. The crewman neglected to tell officers another boat was in close range of the USS Greeneville minutes before the submarine surfaced and smashed through the Ehime Maru, killing nine people.
Members of the U.S. Navy's court of inquiry board the USS Greeneville at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.
Today marks one month since the accident. The court will help determine the fate of Cmdr. Scott Waddle; Lt. j.g. Michael Coen, the officer of the deck; and Lt. Cmdr. Gerald Pfeifer, the second in command. They could face no disciplinary action or anything from a reprimand to court-martial and imprisonment.
Waddle's attorney asked the chief Navy investigator whether the commander was criminally negligent in the operation of his submarine.
"In my opinion," Rear Adm. Charles Griffiths said, "he was not criminally negligent."
About six minutes before the collision, the fire control technician obtained data showing a boat 4,000 yards from the Greeneville.
This happened as Coen and Waddle were conducting periscope scans for surface vessels. Both officers verbally reported seeing no close ships.
The technician should have heard that call and questioned it, Griffiths testified.
"(He) should have spoken up and said, 'That may be, but I think we have a close guy here,"' Griffiths said.
When a lawyer for Coen asked whether that could have prevented the collision, Griffiths replied: "Most emphatically yes." Later, Griffiths added: "I'm certain it wouldn't have occurred."
"That would have changed history," Griffiths said when asked what Waddle might have done if he had been given the information.
Griffiths conducted the preliminary investigation into the accident. The Navy had declined to name the fire control technician, but lawyers identified him as Petty Officer 1st Class Patrick Seacrest.
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