Technology - Canadian Press
Old charts may have caused fatal accident of U.S. nuclear submarine
Sat Jan 15, 7:29 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) - Outdated charts may have been partially at fault for the undersea grounding of a U.S. nuclear submarine last weekend, said an agency that analyzes spy-satellite imagery and produces maps and charts for the Pentagon (news - web sites).
Officials at the Bethesda, Md.-based National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency said Saturday the main chart likely used by the USS San Francisco didn't reveal any obstacle anywhere near where the boat struck on the floor of the Pacific Ocean during underwater operations last Saturday about 565 kilometres south of Guam.
The closest notation on the map indicates discoloured water about five kilometres from the accident site. The discoloured water was reported by the Japanese most likely in the 1960s or even earlier, said David Burpee, the agency's spokesman.
The Defence Mapping Agency created the chart in 1989 and it was never revised. That agency later became a part of the Defence Department's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, responsible for maps and sea charts.
Burpee said a satellite photograph taken 10 years later could be read in hindsight to show an undersea mountain not on the chart but that was not clear at the time and, in any case, the photo was just one among thousands of shots of ocean expanses that have not been fully charted using all the latest methods.
"The charts used today may not reflect the reality of what's actually on the ocean floor," said Burpee, adding the charts used today were charted with earlier technology and may not be up-to-date.
"You think (the charts) are right until somebody tells you they're not," he said, adding ships use sonar to pick up ocean forms and pass that information on to the agency.
The U.S. navy has said an initial investigation into the accident found the submarine struck a large rock, land or other natural feature and nothing else.
One sailor was killed and at least 23 suffered injuries including broken bones, cuts and bruises. The submarine has a crew of 137.
Burpee said the images taken of the area by a Lansat satellite in 1999 could be viewed upon close examination in the wake of the accident to indicate a submerged structure, such as a reef or a ridge, but also could have been read as showing variations in water colour caused by dense growth of plankton or something dumped from a passing ship, such as oil.
"The chart is an imprecise mapping of the bottom to begin with," he said.
"There hasn't been a formal hydrographic sweep through that area of the ocean's bottom."
Burpee said there are currently 150 ships in the world capable of doing that kind of thorough deep-water work and it would take all of them 30 years to map the world's deep water.
"It's not like there was one little area that got away from us, that escaped detection," he said.
"This is part of a massive amount of sea that has not been mapped or charted in detail."
The emphasis in charting has been on the Northern Hemisphere because that's where the majority of commerce is, he said.
San Francisco's nuclear reactor was undamaged and the submarine made its way back to its home port in Guam under its own power. Its outer hull was damaged but its inner hull remained intact.
The submarine had been headed to Australia for a port visit.