USS Guardian turns 90 degrees due to strong waves; more damage to reef feared

[balipseyev]

It's possible that the USS Guardian are putting Sonobuoys near the reef...
Sonobouys detects Submarines (Chinese Submarines?) and any surface ships activity...

USS Guardian was really Off-Course, it was on it's way to Palawan (Puerto Princesa) from Subic, but why does it end up in the reef....

[balipseyev]

Pics....

Before




After ( turned 90 degrees )

[battle axe]

^^ maparehas man gurow ni sa princess of the universe haha

[snipereyes05]

ug sa dihang gi tuyo jud nila...yaw ko ingna sa state of the art technology nila wa cla ka kita na kadakong puti anah visible au sa mata..way uso lubag sa steering wheel sa ila...

[vern]

Oh man! A minesweeper? Lets all get riled up because there must be some deeper conspiracy going on here!

Seriously folks, what if someone just screwed up instead of this being intentional? People do tend to screw up and the US Navy has it's share of screw ups.

[gareb]

if this was a Chinese vessel, we would be up in arms. and since it is a US vessel, we're ok with that. bottom line is, in either situations, they should not be there. besides, damage has already been inflicted us.

we should not just be sad about this incident. we should be angry.

[reptoid]

It's a bit like begging your older brother to stop the school bully from stealing your lunch money, then scolding him because he turned up early. I wondered how short folks memories would be. If the US gets fed up and pulls out, we'll be on our own and it will serve us right. If PH is genuinely so concerned about environmental issues I would love to see some evidence of this because frankly all I see are double-standards.

[balipseyev]

This photo, taken on January 22, 2013 by Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), shows a coast guard wading through water as he tugs a boat towards the US navy minesweeper, USS Guardian, which remains trapped at the Tubbataha reef off the western island of Palawan after it ran aground on January 17

[balipseyev]

The US Navy said Thursday it needed to remove thousands of litres of oil from a minesweeper stuck on World Heritage-listed coral in the Philippines, warning it was too badly damaged to be towed away.

The 68-metre (224-foot) USS Guardian, which became embedded in the Tubbataha Reef a week ago, will have to be lifted onto another ship or barge, a process that might take another fortnight, said Rear Admiral Thomas Carney.

"The option that we hoped to be able to tow the ship off the reef is not available," said Carney, who heads the US Navy's logistics group in the western Pacific.

"It's too badly damaged. It's got hull penetrations in several places, and there's a significant amount of water inside the ship right now."

He said the Guardian had listed after being battered by huge waves, and the most pressing issue was to remove 57,000 litres (15,000 US gallons) of fuel.

"The first priority is to get the fuel out of the ship as soon as possible," Carney told reporters.

US Navy to pump oil from ship stuck in Philippines - Yahoo! News Singapore

[balipseyev]

Salvor arrives tonight to extricate minesweeper

MANILA, Philippines - The United States Navy said a salvor will be arriving tonight to assess the extrication of a minesweeper that ran aground in Tubbataha last week.

Rear Admiral Thomas Carney, logistics group commander for the Western Pacific, said they plan to lift the USS Guardian as a whole. If push comes to shove, they may dismantle the ship piece by piece, he said.

The salvor carries with it additional salvage equipment.

Two crane ships coming from Singapore are also expected to arrive on the 30th or 31st of January.

He said they are still assessing the structural integrity of the ship to determine if lifting it whole is possible. He added there is no definite time table yet, but they are looking into a window of one or two weeks once extrication begins.

Where the remains of USS Guardian ends up is still not certain.

Carney also said he has received notice the Tubbataha Protected Area Management Board issued last Tuesday, which cites the violations of the US Navy.