Navy switches from search to salvage effort

Navy court to convene Monday

In this story: Court of inquiry to begin Monday 'Like tank running over school bus' RELATED STORIES, SITES

HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) -- Three weeks after the collision of a U.S. Navy submarine and a Japanese training ship, the Navy has changed its efforts from searching for the missing to salvaging the sunken Japanese ship, Navy sources told CNN on Friday.

The USS Greeneville was performing an emergency ascent maneuver when it slammed into the Ehime Maru on February 9 off the coast of Hawaii.

GALLERY See images of the sunken Ehime Maru   LEGAL RESOURCES What is a Naval Court of Inquiry?    RESOURCES Text of Cmdr. Waddle's statement Key players in the USS Greeneville investigation Names of civilians on board the USS Greeneville during collision    IN-DEPTH Collision at sea  • Key facts  • Look inside the sub  • Sub-ship size comparison  • How a submarine works  • Description of ascent maneuver    INTERACTIVE Learn more about the U.S. Navy's Unmanned Vehicle Detachment (UMV) Learn more about Deep Drone     MESSAGE BOARD Sub collision

Nine people -- including four students from Uwajima Fisheries High School -- are still missing and presumed dead from the accident. Rescuers picked up 26 people from the Pacific Ocean.

Families of the missing have asked the Navy to raise the 190-foot vessel from its resting place, 1,800 feet below the surface.

The Navy reported this week that a private salvage firm will determine March 8 the feasibility of such an effort, and the Navy will make its own determination around March 12.

Remote-operated vehicles aboard the USS Salvor and the C-Commando surveyed the sunken ship. Those vessels remained near the site of the accident while the search and rescue operation was ongoing.

Court of inquiry to begin Monday

Meanwhile, a Navy court of inquiry begins Monday at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to look into still-troubling questions from the collision -- including whether 16 civilian visitors on the Greeneville prevented crew members from doing their jobs.

Two civilians were operating controls with crew members at two of the three stations used to perform the emergency ascent.

Three of the Greeneville's senior officers have been named as subjects of the inquiry, which the Navy has stressed is a search for the truth and not a criminal prosecution. They are the Greeneville's commander, Cmdr. Scott Waddle; the ship's executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Gerald Pfeifer; and the officer of the deck, Lt. Michael Coen.

Also expected to face tough scrutiny are an enlisted man who reportedly detected the Ehime Maru on sonar and failed to warn his superior officers, and Capt. Bob Brandhuber, the chief of staff for the Pacific Submarine Forces who was host of the civilian guests.

Families of the students still missing are expected to attend the military hearing.

'Like tank running over school bus'

The incident has strained relations between the U.S. and Japan.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Navy's No. 2 officer visited the hometown of the dead, delivering a personal apology to weeping family members and classmates.

Adm. William J. Fallon reportedly told family members that the United States would do its best to raise the sunken trawler to try to recover the bodies of their loved ones.

The accident has prompted U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to temporarily ban civilians from the controls of all military equipment until lingering questions about the Greeneville incident are resolved.

Some Japanese officials say the fact that teen-agers aboard the Ehime Maru were killed has been almost ignored by U.S. media and military reports.

"The image in Japan is like that of a school bus being run over by a tank," said Hiroko Hakoda, speaking for the Japanese Embassy in Washington. "That is not the image Americans have in their minds. It is not being portrayed that way here. There is resistance to that image here."

The Japanese Embassy wants the Ehime Maru to be referred to as a "high school training vessel."

They say calling it a fishing boat or trawler -- as the Navy has done from time to time -- doesn't do justice to the accident.

The embassy sent a note to that effect to the Navy.

In Japan, the sensitivity to the incident caused television stations to cancel broadcasts of the movies "Titanic" and "Godzilla" -- in which the monster attacks fishing boats -- to avoid further traumatizing viewers.

"That children were aboard is crucial to what must happen from here," said Masaki Ejiri, another embassy official.

The Navy stands behind its characterization.

"Obviously we want to describe it as accurately as we can, in terms that people will understand," said Lt. Cmdr. Flex Plexico, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet. "We feel we have tried to be very upfront about the nature of the boat and who was on it."

CNN Correspondent Martin Savidge, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Navy looks at role of escort officer in collision probe
February 24, 2001
Navy probe faults sub crew, sources say
February 23, 2001
Navy grants delay of sub court of inquiry
February 22, 2001
Civilians ordered hands off control
February 21, 2001
Sources: Sub's sonar system detected Japanese vessel
February 20, 2001
Army bars civilians from planes, vehicles
February 20, 2001
Sub skipper refuses to talk to NTSB
February 19, 2001
Letter from the Mayor of Uwajima, Japan
February 19, 2001
Civilians: We were 'innocent bystanders' in sub accident
February 18, 2001
Japanese relatives view video of ship hit by sub
February 18, 2001
Civilians barred from sub controls during probe
February 16, 2001
First report on sub collision could come this week
February 15, 2001

U.S. Coast Guard
Japanese Prime Minister
City of Uwajima's memorial site
U.S. Navy
 • CINCPACFLT statement on the USS Greeneville incident
 • Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet
 • USS Greeneville
National Transportation Safety Board

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