YOKOSUKA, Japan (Reuters) – More than two thousand people in Yokosuka participated in a memorial service held on Tuesday (June 27) for the seven sailors who died when the USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship.
Participants, who included local residents, United States and Japanese military personnel, lined the streets and saluted a row of buses and cars carrying the family members and shipmates of the seven dead sailors, according to the US Navy.
Multiple US and Japanese probes into how the guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald and the much larger ACX Crystal container ship collided in clear weather south of Tokyo Bay in the early hours of June 17 are now underway.
The collision tore a gash below the Fitzgerald’s waterline, killing the seven sailors in what was the greatest loss of life on a US Navy vessel since the USS Cole was bombed in Yemen’s Aden harbor in 2000.