US Submarine Out for Civilian Tour on Day of IncidentThe US submarine Greeneville which sank a Japanese trawler off Hawaii on February 9 was out at sea on that day only for public relations efforts, the lawyer for the submarine's commander said Sunday."It is doubtful that the Greeneville would have even been out at sea that day if it wasn't taking the civilians out because the training that had been planned was canceled," said Charles Gittins in an interview on ABC's "This Week" program. Gittins is the led attorney for submarine commander Scott Waddle when a court of inquiry, the highest form of administrative investigation of US Navy, begins hearing on the incident in Honolulu on Monday. The lawyer, however, insisted that the 16 civilian guests, who were in the control room of the submarine at the time of the accident, "had very little impact on the operation of the crew." According to investigations, two of the 16 civilians were at control positions at the time of the accident and one of them even pulled the leverage which enabled the submarine to start an emergency surfacing. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board and a preliminary inquiry by the U.S. Navy have found that the presence of the civilians proved a distraction to the crew. |
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