Sailors Missing After Collision Near Strait of Malacca

Anna Fifield reports at the Washington Post:

Ten U.S. Navy sailors were missing and five were injured after the USS John S. McCain guided missile destroyer and an oil tanker more than three times its size collided near Singapore early Monday.

American and Singaporean ships and helicopters launched a search-and-rescue mission after the pre-dawn collision at the entrance to one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

This was the second time in two months that a Navy destroyer based at the 7th Fleet's home port of Yokosuka, Japan, has been involved in a collision at sea. Seven sailors were killed when the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship south of Japan in June.

The McCain, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer equipped with an Aegis system, had been on its way to a routine port visit in Singapore after patrolling in the South China Sea. Shipping data showed that the Liberian-flagged merchant vessel Alnic MC was also on its way to Singapore when the ships collided east of the Strait of Malacca at 5:24 a.m. local time, while it was still dark.

I desperately hope that the missing sailors will be found alive and unharmed. My thoughts are with their families; the waiting for news must be excruciating.

Last night, Voice of America's Steve Herman asked Donald Trump about the collision, to which Trump responded: "That's too bad."

In response to my question about the USS John S. McCain collision @POTUS at @WhiteHouse South Portico replies “that’s too bad.” pic.twitter.com/G6CK0E8y8Y

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 21, 2017

Trump later tweeted: "Thoughts & prayers are w/ our @USNavy sailors aboard the #USSJohnSMcCain where search & rescue efforts are underway." Oh.

Reports are that Trump simply hadn't yet been briefed on the situation when he responded "That's too bad," but the president shouldn't have to be briefed in order to know that a more sensitive and decent response is required. And it's appalling that, even given time to consider a response, he simply offered a perfunctory "thoughts and prayers" only to the sailors aboard the destroyer. Fucking hell.