By
The Associated Press
HONOLULU - His head bowed and his eyes filled with tears, a Japanese fishing boat captain described the terrifying minutes after a U.S. submarine smashed into his boat and caused it to sink into the waters off Hawaii.
"The ship went down without tilting, almost straight down," Hisao Onishi, captain of the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru, said Saturday. "We couldn't get the life rafts out and were washed into the sea."
In his first public remarks since Friday's tragedy, Onishi expressed anguish over the nine people who are still missing and disbelief at how long it took for the 26 survivors to be rescued after their boat was struck by the USS Greeneville.
"We did our best to find other survivors," Onishi told reporters in Japanese. "We just couldn't find the nine missing."
Yesterday, Coast Guard rescue teams were continuing to search the waters for three crew members, two teachers and four students from Uwajima Fisheries High School in southwestern Japan.
Five aircraft and four vessels were sweeping a 4,000-square-mile area, said Coast Guard Chief Mike Cobb of the Joint Resource Coordination Center.
Search conditions were excellent yesterday, with winds at 5 to 10 knots and seas between 1 to 2 feet, Cobb said.
Still wearing the blue jump suit he was issued at the Coast Guard base after his rescue, Onishi appeared at a press conference Saturday with Ietaka Horita, the principal of the school who sent staff and students for training on the 180-foot vessel.
Onishi, 58, recounted how an ordinary fishing expedition in good weather turned tragic when the nuclear-powered attack submarine surfaced under his ship.
"There was a violent collision, or I should say there was a very loud noise and a jolt that seemed to lift our stern up," Onishi said. "We heard two cracking noises. I could not see any other ships in the area, and I looked around, thinking we might have hit a floating object."
The submarine was on a routine one-day training mission Friday afternoon when it surfaced, splitting open the Ehime Maru and sinking it within 10 minutes.
The power went out, preventing Onishi from calling for help, but he said he yelled for everyone to head up to the bridge and into the life rafts.
Crew member Akira Kagajyo later told Onishi the engine room flooded to the ceiling and he managed to get two breaths before he was "flushed out" to eventual safety.
The survivors waited 50 minutes to be plucked from the waters. A Coast Guard helicopter and plane reached the scene about 35 minutes after the collision. Patrol boats that rescued the 26 survivors arrived about 15 minutes later, said Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Greg Fondran.
"I could see several people on the (submarine) tower," Onishi said. "They lowered a rope ladder from the conning tower, but none of our crew members were rescued by the submarine...They were just looking until the Coast Guard arrived, " he said.
Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said choppy conditions made it too dangerous for the Greeneville crew to open hatches to take survivors on board. There were waves of three to four feet with a six-foot swell at the time, Fargo said.
But Onishi said conditions were calm enough that water did not enter the life rafts.
The Greeneville stayed at the search scene overnight to provide rescue support before returning to port at Pearl Harbor under its own power Saturday morning.
The submarine incurred only superficial damage to its rudder and port side, Navy officials said.
The Navy and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating what went wrong as the 360-foot, 6,900-ton Greeneville practiced an emergency surfacing maneuver that put it on a collision course with the Japanese boat.
The submarine's commander, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, was reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation, the Navy said.
Onishi and Horita shared a handkerchief for their tears as they struggled to retain their composure during the press conference.
Horita, who flew to Honolulu on Saturday, described an emotional reunion with the surviving students.
"We really didn't exchange any words," said Horita, who will remain in Hawaii until all the rescued students return to Japan. "There was no need. A hug was all that was necessary. Men of the sea would understand."
