Aegis destroyer collides with fishing boat off Chiba; two missing

Japanese destroyer collides with fishing boat off — A Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer with an advanced radar system collided with a small fishing boat early Tuesday morning in the Pacific off the coast of Chiba Prefecture, causing the boat to capsize and leaving its two crewmembers missing, the MSDF and the Japan Coast Guard said.
Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said authorities are making all-out efforts to rescue the fishermen and that the MSDF has yet to determine the cause of the collision. It was the first serious accident involving an MSDF vessel and civilian ship since a submarine and a fishing boat collided in Tokyo Bay in 1988, killing 30.
The hull of the 15-meter-long tuna fishing boat Seitoku Maru split into its bow and stern parts following the collision with the 165 m-long Atago, which is equipped with the high-tech Aegis defense system, the MSDF said. The MSDF and the coast guard have dispatched boats and aircraft to conduct a search at the site, they said.
The coast guard said it tried unsuccessfully to find the missing men in searches of the two parts of the hull, which were still afloat.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told the Defense Ministry and the coast guard to make all-out search-and-rescue efforts when he was notified of the 4:07 a.m. incident about two hours after it occurred.
Ishiba said his ministry has yet to determine what caused it, including how the high-tech radar was functioning at the time.
The Maritime Staff Office's Operations and Plans Department chief Katsutoshi Kawano apologized to people concerned as well as the public for the accident.
The collision took place in what Kawano described as relatively "calm" sea around 40 kilometers south-southwest of Nojimazaki Cape at the southernmost tip of the Boso Peninsula. The cape is about 85 kilometers south of Tokyo.
The fishing boat belongs to a fishery cooperative in Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture, and was carrying Haruo Kichisei, 58, and his 23-year-old son Tetsuhiro, from Katsuura city, the coast guard said.
It left port in Katsuura at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday together with several other fishing boats, according to the cooperative.
According to the coast guard, it was cloudy in the area when the accident occurred and the sea was relatively calm with good visibility of around 2 kilometers. Wind velocity was 25.2 kilometers per hour.
The MSDF said five vessels and four helicopters have been dispatched to the site to conduct a search. It has set up an accident investigation commission, while the government established an information liaison office within the crisis management center at the prime minister's office.
With regard to the handling of the accident, Fukuda questioned the crisis management system of the ministry and the Self-Defense Forces, saying the first accident report to Ishiba, which was at 5:38 a.m., was "late."
Ishiba said, "It even took 40 minutes for the information to reach me from the ministry's Internal Bureau...The lag should be shortened. The first report should have reached the minister much earlier."
In July 1988, the MSDF submarine Nadashio, now decommissioned, collided with a fishing boat off Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture, killing 30 people including anglers.
Fukuda, Ishiba, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura and transport minister Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, who oversees the coast guard, met prior to the Cabinet meeting to be briefed on the accident and the latest search activities.
The Atago, which went into commission in March 2007, was heading for the port of Yokosuka after completing tests of its equipment related to Standard Missile-2 interceptors in Hawaii, according to the MSDF.
The 7,700-ton ship, under the command of Capt Ken Funato, 52, was supposed to arrive at Yokosuka port at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Kawano said.
The Atago destroyer is the latest version of destroyer equipped with the Aegis advanced defense system. It is based at the MSDF Maizuru base in Kyoto Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast. It typically carries around 300 crew members.
An Aegis ship is designed to play a central role in Japan's missile defense shield. It is capable of dealing with more than 10 incoming missiles, aircraft and other enemy targets simultaneously.