The US Navy dropped its charge for negligent homicide against the former commanding officer of the warship “USS John S. McCain” that collided with a tanker near Singapore last summer. As a result of the accident 10 sailors lost their lives.
Earlier this year, the US Navy informed that it would seek negligent homicide charges against Cmdr. Alfredo Sanchez, who commanded John S. McCain, when it collided with the chemical tanker ‘Alnic MC’ on 21 August 2017 in the Straits of Singapore.
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This announcement stated that the commanding office of the war ship would face negligent homicide, hazarding a vessel and dereliction of duty charges.
However, according to an official update last week, the commanding officer would now face only dereliction charges at a special court-martial, which will begin on Friday, 25 May.
On March, Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) released a report regarding the collision between the US warship USS John S. McCain and Liberian-registered Alnic MC. The report said that after the warship made a sudden turn to the left, the crew of Alnic assumed that USS John S McCain would pass safely ahead. However, within three minutes the collision happened, despite the actions that Alnic MC took to avoid it.
The reason why the accident happened is due to multiple errors that happened after propulsion controls were transferred, according to the report, as the warship unintentionally increased the rate of the vessel’s turn.
