A US nuclear-powered submarine suffered an incident in October when it collided with an uncharted mountain under the ocean, CNN reported Tuesday.
At least 11 sailors were injured, although none seriously, in this incident, the causes of which were unknown until now and which occurred in the disputed waters of the Indo-Pacific Ocean.
The event forced the submarine USS Connecticut to head from the South China Sea to the island of Guam for repair.
The ship had been operating on a disputed sea lane when it crashed on October 2, triggering speculation as to what had been the cause of the incident.
The submarine USS Connecticut leaves the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for sea trials following maintenance in December 2016 in Washington.Thiep Van Nguyen II / AP
"The investigation determined that the USS Connecticut was stranded in an unexplored seamount while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region," a spokesman for the Seventh Fleet, which covers the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, told the aforementioned media.
The USNI News portal was the first to report the results of the investigation.
Although the Seawolf-class submarine suffered some damage, the Navy specified that the nuclear power plant was left intact.
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The collision came at a particularly sensitive time in US-China relations, as the Chinese Army was sending planes to the Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone.
In fact, on the day of the accident, China flew 39 planes in the aforementioned Air Defense Identification Zone.
Two days later, Beijing sent a record 56 aircraft to the area in a 24-hour period.
China on Tuesday accused the United States of "lack of transparency and accountability" in relation to the submarine accident.
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The spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin, assured that the United States should give all the details of the incident that has reignited a dispute between the two countries over the strategic sea route.
"We once again urge the US to give a detailed account of the accident," said Wang.
And he added that the
United States has so far not offered "a clear explanation"
of what the Navy's nuclear submarine was doing in the area, as well as "the specific location of the accident, whether it was in the exclusive economic zone of another country or even in territorial waters, if it caused a nuclear leak or damaged the marine environment ”.