As Sailors’ Bodies Are Flown to U.S., Fitzgerald Inquiries Intensify<br />The Crystal reported the collision at 2:25 a.m. on Saturday, but Nippon Yusen determined that it occurred around 1:30 a.m.<br />Junichi Kanegae, a board member of the Japan Captains’ Association, said<br />that while that might seem like a long delay, the crew of the Crystal probably would have reported to the captain and contacted the Fitzgerald before reporting the incident to the Japanese Coast Guard.<br />By MOTOKO RICHJUNE 20, 2017<br />TOKYO — As the bodies of the seven sailors who died aboard the American destroyer Fitzgerald last weekend were flown back to the<br />United States from Japan on Tuesday, multiple investigations of the fatal collision with a container ship began in earnest.<br />According to Ryota Kowata, a spokesman for Nippon Yusen, the Japanese shipping company<br />that chartered the Crystal, the ship left the Port of Yokohama on Tuesday, but Mr. Kowata declined to say where it was going.<br />The United States Navy and Coast Guard are investigating, as are the Japanese Coast Guard<br />and the Japan Transport Safety Board, in an effort to determine what caused the deadly crash in a busy sea lane in the middle of the night.<br />Lt. Scott Carr, a Coast Guard spokesman, said he could not disclose details of the inquiry, but he said<br />that investigators would typically interview crew members and examine electronic data from the ships involved.<br />It was not clear how long the Crystal and its 20 crew members, all from the Philippines, would stay in Japanese waters.
