Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet Scott Swift on Tuesday said the remains of some of the Navy sailors, who went missing after the USS John S McCain collided with an oil tanker near Singapore, were found in a compartment aboard the destroyer, reported Sky News.
Swift said the Navy found their bodies in sealed compartments during their search on Tuesday. Malaysian officials, too, found one body but are still in the process of identifying it, reported Fox News.
“We will continue the search and rescue operations until the probability of discovering sailors is exhausted,” Swift said. “We are in the process of gaining possession of those remains [from Malaysia], so we are in the process of identifying.”
Ten soldiers were reported missing after the Navy vessel collided with the merchant ship Alnic MC in the Strait of Malacca on Monday. The incident took place at 5.24 am as the ship was passing the entrance of the strait. The destroyer was damaged on the left side, and five sailors had suffered non-life threatening injuries.
The ship was on its way to Singapore’s Changi naval base. The vessel was carrying the Aegis missile defence system, which is capable of countering a North Korean missile attack.
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