Civilian at the helm prior to submarine's collision

A civilian guest was at the controls of the USS Greeneville attack submarine just before it collided with a Japanese ship off Hawaii, Pentagon officials disclosed to National Journal News Service on Tuesday. The collision sank the fishing vessel filled with high school students and crew, nine of whom are still missing at sea.

Several of the 15 unnamed guests aboard the Greeneville took turns maneuvering the submarine just before the collision, Pentagon officials said, including working the planes that cause the submarine to move up and down in the water. The officials added that they had not determined whether a civilian was working the planes at the instant the two ships collided.

The disclosure adds a whole new dimension to the tragedy aboard the Japanese ship Ehime Maru, which sank almost immediately after the 362-foot long Greeneville shot out of the sea and punched a giant hole in the fishing vessel last Friday about 10 miles south of Honolulu. Thirty-four people, 13 of whom were students learning tuna fishing techniques, were aboard the 191-foot Ehime Maru. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued 25 people from three life rafts strapped together but could not find the other nine people who were aboard the Japanese ship.

At the time of the impact, the Greeneville was executing a highly dramatic emergency ascent in which water is blown out of the ballast tanks. The maneuver made the 6,900-ton Los Angeles class submarine so buoyant that it shot up to the surface with such force that it leaped into the air and hit the lighter fishing boat like a battering ram, officials said.

Once the emergency ascent was underway, Pentagon officials said, it is not certain whether a civilian working the planes in the wrong direction would have had any effect on the rapid rise of the submarine through the water. But these same officials acknowledged that this possibility, together with the Navy's refusal to identify the guests who were aboard the submarine, could turn out to be a public relations disaster for the United States in Japan and elsewhere in the world.

The Pentagon's spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, said Tuesday that the Pentagon might never release the names of the civilians on board because of their rights to privacy even though they were on a government ship. National Journal News Service and CNN said they would challenge that stand by filing a demand for a passenger manifest under the Freedom of Information Act.

"We know we can't win on this one," a Pentagon official said, blaming the Navy for stonewalling on the names of the guests.

The Greeneville left its home port of Pearl Harbor at 8 a.m. (1 p.m. EST) on Feb. 9 for a day-long training mission which was supposed to be routine. The submarine carried a Navy crew of about 100 sailors and officers and the 15 unidentified civilian guests, who some military officials had suggested were local Chamber of Commerce "types." However, Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii official Charlie Ota said in an interview Tuesday that his organization was not involved in placing any civilians on the submarine.

Although the Navy traditionally takes politicians and other VIPs on its submarines to showoff undersea prowess, 15 is an unusually high number to take aboard at one time because of the cramped quarters of even such large submarines. But Quigley said it was not an unprecedented number.

"Were any of the numerous guests on board at the controls of the submarine before it had the accident?" National Journal News Service asked Quigley Tuesday. He replied: "I'm sure we'll find out that as part of the investigation."

Pressed on why the Pentagon was refusing to release the names of the guests, Quigley answered: "I think that when [we] take guests on board, they don't automatically surrender their rights to privacy. And they've asked their names not be released, and we're honoring that."

The Navy and the National Transportation Safety Board have launched an investigation of the collision. Quigley said he did not know any rules the submarine had violated, such as practicing the emergency ascent in an area of the sea often congested with ships.

Quigley also disputed suggestions made at his Pentagon briefing Tuesday that the Greeneville should have employed its active sonar--which sends out radio waves to bounce off any vessels in the area--as well as its passive sonar, which acts like an undersea microphone picking up sea sounds. The passive sonar was the more effective sensor during the Greeneville's fast ascent, he said.

Reports out of Japan have lambasted the crew of the Greeneville for not trying to rescue passengers of the fishing vessel right after the collision, which left the rugged attack submarine intact. Quigley reacted to those complaints on Tuesday in these words:

"A submarine in the seas is a lousy platform to recover people from the water or bring rafts alongside. As you all understand, the hull of a Los Angeles submarine is basically round ... . The rafts or individuals could have slammed up against the hull in seas of that sort and injured very seriously or even killed. And even had they been able to pull them on the deck of the submarine, there's only one small strip of non-skid material running right down the center of the submarine that allows you any sort of traction. All the rest of the hull is completely smooth and slick by design in order to make it more efficient and quiet as it moves through the water."

President Bush apologized personally to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in a telephone call Tuesday. The administration has promised to keep searching for survivors or their remains, including sending a Navy remotely-operated vehicle into the seas where the crash occurred.