The N.Y. Times closes in on the story first.
Old navigation charts led to submarine crash
Christopher Drew
New York Times
Jan. 15, 2005 12:00 AM
Sailors on the USS San Francisco, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, had just finished cleaning the vessel Jan. 8 as it sped along 500 feet beneath the surface of the South Pacific. Submarines run blind, just listening for sounds of danger. And to the captain and other officers relying on undersea navigation charts, everything seemed clear.
Suddenly, there was a horrible screeching. And according to an e-mail message written by one crew member, the inside of the sub quickly resembled a scene from the movie The Matrix. He wrote that "everything slowed down and levitated and then went flying forward faster than the brain can process."
The submarine had crashed head-on into an undersea mountain that was not on the charts. Now, Defense Department officials say they have found a satellite image taken in 1999 that indicates an undersea mountain rising to perhaps 100 feet below the surface at that spot.
But the older navigation charts provided to the Navy were never updated to show the obstruction, they acknowledge, in part because the defense agency that creates them has never had the resources to systematically use the satellite data.
The officials said the main chart on the submarine, prepared in 1989 and never revised, did not show any potential obstacles within three miles of the crash, which killed one sailor and injured 60 others.
They said the violent collision happened in such a desolate area, 360 miles southeast of Guam, that updating their depiction of the undersea terrain was never considered a high priority.
The new information about the charting flaws also illustrates what many experts say is a broader danger not only to submarines but also to many surface ships. At the same time, it provides a glimpse into the arcane task of plotting an undersea world that in some areas is still more mysterious than the surfaces of Mars or Venus.
But a variety of satellite data is now showing that many sea charts, including some that still rely on notations from the days when sailors navigated by the stars, are inaccurate. And some scientists are calling for greater use of satellite data to more precisely fix the location of undersea ridges, islands and even continental boundaries and to chart large areas of the oceans about which little is known.
The latest disclosures support the account by the commanding officer of the San Francisco that the charts showed that his track was clear. But former submarine captains said Navy investigators were likely to examine whether it was prudent for him to travel at such a high speed, 30 knots, given the age and spottiness of the information.
Navy officials declined to comment, saying they are investigating the accident.
The submarine left Guam on Jan. 7 and was heading to Brisbane, Australia. The Navy said 23 of the sailors were injured seriously, and eight seemed to have broken bones.
The e-mail message by the sailor was sent to several people involved with submarines, and as it circulated within the submarine community, one person provided a copy to the New York Times.
The sailor wrote that many crew members were eating lunch at the time of the crash, which severely damaged the vessel's bow. He said several sailors suffered "bad head wounds," and men in the engine room smashed against "lots of metal and sharp edges."
Still, he said, the vessel's damage control party "did everything exactly right, even though they were hurt as well."
The message also said the submarine was lucky to have an extra medic aboard, and that its main medic, known as a corpsman, did not sleep during the two-day trip back to port.
The Navy has said that a machinist's mate second class, Joseph A. Ashley of Akron, Ohio, was knocked unconscious during the crash and died the next day from severe head injuries. The e-mail said that other sailors were surprised that the corpsman "got him to hold on as long as he did."
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