US warship, oil tanker collision in high concentrated area (Updated)

PUTRAJAYA: The sea route where a collision between a US warship and an oil tanker took place early this morning was a highly concentrated area, with at least 80,000 vessels passing through it every year.
Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) director-general Datuk Zulkifili Abu Bakar said a similar collision between two vessels had occurred near the area last Thursday.
He added the wave situation during the incident involving the US vessel was around 0.5m to 1m, which could be "challenging" for the missing sailors that were thrown overboard.
"The area is the entrance to the Traffic Separation Scheme area. Both vessels were coming from the South China Sea," he said.

"I do not want to speculate on how the collision happened but this area is a busy area, especially considering the two vessels were about to enter the Traffic Separation Scheme," he told a press conference at MMEA headquarters at IOI Resort here.
The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain was involved in a collision with the Liberian-flagged vessel Alnic MC at 5.24am Monday, off the coast of east Johor. The US vessel was transiting to a routine port visit in Singapore.
Ten sailors from the US warship were missing, while another five of its crew members were injured in the incident.
Zulkifili also confirmed that the incident occurred on Malaysian waters - just 4.5 nautical miles from the Malaysian coast - despite reports stating otherwise.
"It is not true that Malaysia is not involved in the search and rescue as the incident happened in Malaysian territorial waters," he said.
"Our officers will be in communication with the Singaporean authorities. Assets on the ground were also talking with each other.

"One thing which is clear is that we do not want to have another collision between the assets. We should not argue about whose waters (the incident occurred) as what is more important is to focus on the search and rescue effort," he added.
Zulkifili said the US warship had entered the Singapore Changi Naval Base for repair works and investigation over the incident.
He said the five injured crew members were sent to a hospital in Singapore for treatment, adding that there were still no update yet on the missing sailors.
Zulkifili said assets from the MMEA, Marine Department, Royal Malaysian Navy and marine police had been dispatched to the scene for SAR efforts.
Singapore, US and Indonesia had also mobilised their assets to assist the operation, Zulkifili added.