Four crew members were washed overboard by heavy waves on 29 December 2006 in Plymouth Sound, England as the ship was exiting HMNB Devonport on the surface following a port call. This resulted in the deaths of Senior Chief Petty Officer Thomas Higgins (Chief of the Boat) and Sonar Technician (Submarines) 2nd Class Michael Holtz. After the preliminary investigation, Commander Edwin Ruff, the Commanding Officer, received a punitive letter of reprimand and was relieved of command. (Source: Wikipedia) Department of the Navy Documents The following documents were released under the FOIA to the Military Times. CFFC Response to FOIA…
Author: John Greenewald
Background The USS Hartford and USS New Orleans collision was a collision between the United States Navy Los Angeles-class submarine USS Hartford (SSN-768) and the United States Navy San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS New Orleans (LPD-18) on March 20, 2009. It occurred in the Strait of Hormuz, between Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Musandam, an exclave of Oman. A US Navy investigation into the collision found that the the Hartford was solely to blame for the accident. According to the Navy, the accident was caused by poor, lax leadership on the submarine and a failure to adequately prepare…
Background On 8 January 2005 at 02:43 GMT, San Francisco collided with an undersea mountain about 675 kilometers (364 Nautical Miles, 420 statute miles) south-east of Guam while operating at flank (maximum) speed and more than 200 feet (61 m) deep. The collision was so serious that the vessel was almost lost — accounts detail a desperate struggle for positive buoyancy to surface after the forward ballast tanks were ruptured. Twenty-three crewmen were injured, and Machinist’s Mate Second Class Joseph Allen Ashley, 24, of Akron, Ohio, died on 9 January from head injuries. Other injuries to the crew included broken…
According to RT.com: More than 4,000 tons of shells exploded near a military testing ground some 40 kilometers from the city of Orenburg in Central Russia, prompting the mass evacuation of two nearby towns. Those 4,000 tons included 1,379 tons of 100mm shells, 400 tons of air bombs and 2,300 tons of 280mm reactive shells, the head of the military investigative committee announced. Witnesses recorded video of a massive plume of smoke rising into the air shortly after the explosions. Local residents said that the blasts were powerful enough to rattle windows dozens of kilometers away from the epicenter. Declassified…
On 28 July 2010, at approximately 1822 hours local time (L), a C-17A, Tail Number 00-0173, executed a takeoff from Runway 06 to practice maneuvers for the upcoming 31 Jul 10 Arctic Thunder Airshow at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. After the initial climbout and left tum, the mishap pilot executed an aggressive right tum. As the aircraft banked, the stall warning system activated to alert the crew of an impending stall. Instead of implementing stall recovery procedures, the pilot continued the tum as planned, and the aircraft entered a stall from which recovery was not possible. Although the pilot eventually attempted…