US Navy removing 7th Fleet commander after collisions: Reports
The US Navy is dismissing the commander of the fleet that has suffered four recent collisions in Asia, including two involving fatalities, according to reports.
Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, the commander of the US Seventh Fleet based in Yokosuka, Japan, will be relieved of command on Wednesday in connection with recent deadly collisions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing US officials.
"An expedited change in leadership was needed," a US official told Reuters late on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity,
This comes following an accident on Monday in which the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with a merchant ship off Singapore, leaving 10 sailors missing.
The USS John S. McCain collided with the oil tanker Alnic MC on Monday morning local time while the guided-missile destroyer was passing near the Malacca Strait to make a port visit in Singapore, the Navy's 7th Fleet said in a statement.
The sailors are feared dead as US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift has announced that divers searching for the missing service members have found human remains in the warship.
"The divers were able to locate some remains in those sealed compartments during their search today," Swift told reporters on Tuesday at Singapore's Changi Naval Base, where the damaged warship is docked.
Swift also said that Malaysian authorities, one of three countries involved in the major hunt for the missing sailors who are feared dead, had also found a body.
He added that the US Navy was trying to identify the body to see if it was one of 10 missing US sailors in the accident.
In June, another guided-missile destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, collided with the Philippine-flagged merchant ship ACX Crystal 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka, Japan. Seven US sailors were killed in that collision.
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