USNS Impeccable

[JALU3]

CNN

Sub collides with sonar array towed by U.S. Navy ship

updated 5:22 p.m. EDT, Fri June 12, 2009

From Barbara Starr
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In what a U.S. military official calls an "inadvertent encounter," a Chinese submarine hit an underwater sonar array being towed by the destroyer USS John McCain on Thursday.

The array was damaged, but the sub and the ship did not collide, the official said. A sonar array is a device towed behind a ship that listens and locates underwater sounds.

The incident occurred near Subic Bay off the coast of the Philippines.

The official, who declined to be named because the incident had not been made public, would not say whether the U.S. ship knew the submarine was that close to it.

Having family that comes from Subic Bay, It would be a bad thing to have a Support Activity open up again, especially with a more active PLAN in the area.