USS Yorktown aids in tanker rescue (USA troops bump)

www.stripes.com ^ | By Kendra Helmer

[bogdanPolska12]

Sailors from the USS Yorktown helped rescue 24 members of a Maltese oil tanker that collided with a fishing vessel and caught on fire Monday.

At 7:30 a.m. Monday, the Maltese-flagged Everton made a distress call following the collision about 28 miles off the coast of Oman.

The guided-missile cruiser Yorktown, operating about 90 miles away, dispatched its SH-60B helicopter to aid in the search-and-rescue. As of Friday, one Everton crewmember was still listed as missing.

Several commercial vessels initially responded and helped pick up 24 of the 25 Everton crewmen who abandoned their 567-foot ship.

The Yorktown sent its rigid-hulled inflatable boat to one of the commercial vessels and took about seven of Everton’s crew back to the cruiser to coordinate a plan to help fight the fire, said Cmdr. Jamie Graybeal, 5th Fleet spokesman.

The inflatable boat later returned to the ship with several Everton crewmen, a portable water pump and several containers of foam to smother the flames.

The vessel that collided with the Everton, the Chun Ying, was not in the area, Graybeal said. Other news agencies reported that it fled the scene.

The Yorktown, part of Expeditionary Strike Group Two, arrived in the 5th Fleet area in March. It is on a six-month deployment from Pascagoula, Miss.

[dsc]

"Cmdr. Jamie Graybeal"

Hey, I know him.

"The vessel that collided with the Everton, the Chun Ying, was not in the area"

Ooo, major law-of-the-sea no-no. They'll pay for that.

[Broadside Joe]

"The vessel that collided with the Everton, the Chun Ying, was not in the area, Graybeal said. Other news agencies reported that it fled the scene."

Were they scared? Or up to no good?

[2111USMC]

Hit and Run on the high seas!

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Fleeing the interview! He's fleeing the interview!

[Cold Heart]

Possibly carrying big No No cargo or passengers?

[JimRed]

The vessel that collided with the Everton, the Chun Ying, was not in the area, Graybeal said. Other news agencies reported that it fled the scene.

Fled the scene? How large a ship was it, that it was able to survive the collision and flee?

Could the Chinese be testing a new tactic with their own version of the WW II "Q" ship?

[Cold Heart]

Possibly carrying big No No cargo or passengers?

[BykrBayb]

Update on earlier thread.

[BykrBayb]

Courtesy of U.S. Navy
Sailors from the USS Yorktown fight a fire aboard the Maltese-flagged Everton, an oil tanker that collided with a fishing vessel on Monday. The USS Yorktown helped rescue 24 members of the Everton's crew.

Courtesy of U.S. Navy
The Everton, a Maltese oil tanker, burns this week following a collision with a fishing vessel off the coast of Oman.

[BykrBayb]

(Mar. 22, 2004) – Sailors from the Pascagoula, Miss.-based Aegis guided-missile cruiser USS Yorktown (CG 48) fight a fire aboard motor vessel Everton off the coast of Oman. Yorktown dispatched a 6-person damage control team to M/V Everton with a P-100 pump and Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) to put out flames and cool hotspots throughout its hull. 24 of the tanker's 25 crewmembers were rescued. One crew member is still listed as missing. Yorktown is assigned to Expeditionary Strike Group Two (ESG-2) currently conducting missions in support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. U.S. Navy photo. (Released) - Expeditionary Strike Group Two (ESG-2) recently deployed in the continuing support of the global war on terrorism. The Wasp Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) consists of the guided missile cruisers USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55) and USS Yorktown (CG 48), amphibious transport ship USS Shreveport (LPD 12), dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41), guided missile destroyer USS McFaul (DDG 74), fast attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN 22) and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (22nd MEU). U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class James E. Perkins. (RELEASED)

[bogdanPolska12]

Probably up to no good. Name it self makes a clear picture. Either Chinese are trying to pull same crop they did with USA airplane, or North Koreans are really asking for it.

What makes this interesting is name itself.

I don't know what kind of crop they are playing, but I would like to remind China and North Korea that USA has enough fire power to send them to stone age and whoever is playing stupid games better understand USA is not a country you want to play with.

And now we have french kangaroo with ears and lips that would put best museums to shame. Even Picaso would not be able to sit still with his abstract paintings to pain idiot like Kerry.

[danamco]

"Cmdr. Jamie Graybeal"

Hey, I know him.

"The vessel that collided with the Everton, the Chun Ying, was not in the area"

Ooo, major law-of-the-sea no-no. They'll pay for that.


According to the pictures and the 567 foot long, this is not a small tanker. Looks probably way over 100.000 tons, which we call a super tanker and probably loaded with crude oil. You don't catch fire from colliding with a fishing boat!

I one time worked on a much smaller tanker loaded with gasoline and in the Malacca's Strait in a heavy rain gust we ran into a LPN tanker, right in the middle of the ship.
Apart from crumpled steel on both vessels, PTL no fire broke out. But it took 2 months repair at a dry-dock in Japan. Terrorist attack? Most possible!!

[dsc]

"PTL no fire broke out."

Thank the Lord. However, this news story just says "fishing vessel." Some of those fishing vessels are actually floating factories where fish are cleaned and frozen, while smaller boats do the actual fishing. Mother ships, so to speak.

Is there more news? Do we know the size of the other vessel?

Further, the condition of maintenance, and just plain chance, also have a lot to do with whether fires break out. If there was a joint in a fuel line that was improperly maintained, the impact of collision could have (and I know I'm just speculating) resulted in an oil spray fire in an engineering space. From the picture, it doesn't look like the bunker oil is afire.

For that matter, the fire could have started in the galley. So, I'd have to speculate that it's not impossible that the fire was caused by a collision with a smaller vessel.

"Terrorist attack? Most possible!!"

Can't rule it out at this point. But they had the name of the other vessel, which means that either it was painted on the side of the ship and they saw it, or they were in communication before and/or after the accident, and the ship gave its name.

Seems like in a terrorist attack they'd try to hide their identity.