USS Fitzgerald: Seven sailors remain missing

The stricken destroyer Fitzgerald has returned home, but 7 sailors are still missing 
Navy Times 
By: David B. Larter 
June 17, 2017

Three sailors, including the ship’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Bryce Benson, were medically evacuated from the Fitzgerald by Japanese military aircraft and rushed back to mainland during the ship's long transit home.

Kazuhiro Nogi/ AFP via Getty images

UPDATE: The destroyer Fitzgerald, mangled from a rare, harrowing collision while at sea, returned to its home port of Yokosuka, Japan, at about 6:15 p.m. local time Saturday, capping a 16-hour effort by the crew to prevent an even greater crisis. 

Seven sailors remain missing, and divers were standing by to assess the ship's damage and try to access the spaces that were flooded when Fitzgerald collided with a merchant ship nearly four-times its size in the middle of the night. 

The incident occurred in the Philippine Sea, about 50 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka. Images show clearly the ship had taken on massive amounts of water during the ordeal. A news release from U.S. 7th Fleet confirmed that two berthing spaces, an auxiliary machine room and the ship’s radio room all flooded. read more here