Investigation into sub fatality blames victim

[unhappycamper]

Death on the Nebraska
Sailor disregarded safety warnings, inquiry finds


Investigation into sub fatality blames victim
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Nov 26, 2008 18:45:40 EST

SAN DIEGO — A Navy investigation into the Sept. 20 death of a submariner found that the sailor got himself into a deadly situation while trying to clean up some oil aboard the ballistic missile submarine Nebraska during its weekly “Field Day.”

Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class (SS) Michael A. Gentile became crushed and pinned in the rudder ram in the submarine’s “shaft alley” at its far aft section when Nebraska, operating near the Hawaiian islands that morning, changed course, according to an investigation the Navy released Wednesday. Despite efforts by crew members to stem blood loss, Gentile died aboard a Coast Guard helicopter en route to the military hospital on Oahu.

Investigators found that Gentile, 21, had ignored warning signs posted in the aft auxiliary area, and he stepped into an area to place absorbent cloths in the space, likely expecting the rudder mechanisms wouldn’t move while he got the cleaning done.

Gentile “went beyond a posted warning sign and safety chain and placed himself in dangerous proximity to specifically marked moving components of the rudder ram,” Rear Adm. Tim Giardina, who commands Submarine Group-Trident in Silverdale, Wash., wrote in an endorsement of the report completed by Submarine Squadron 17 under the Judge Advocate General’s Manual. Gentile “disregarded these visual safety warnings.”

But Giardina and investigators also found some “shortcomings” in Nebraska’s chain of command, specifically lack of enforcing safety rules and the cleaning habits and practices in shaft alley, where some sailors had taken to using sticks or bilge grabbers to reach and clean its tight confines.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/11/navy_nebraskadeath_112608w/%2e