The Submarine that Crashed into a Mountain

As the three-billion USS Connecticut submarine was making her way through unknown waters in October of 2021, the crew wasn’t aware that the sonar was malfunctioning, and they were very relaxed.

By the time an unidentified object was picked up by the sophisticated sensors of the US Navy submarine, it was already too late to react.

The colossal submarine hit the seafloor and its entire hull shaked with violence. Then, a brutal and empty cracking noise was heard. The submarine had just lost its nose, and it was quickly sinking…

[danger_]

playing bumper ships in the Pacific is a time honored tradition in the us navy

[royduenas]

I'm from Guam and remember this incident. Being an Environmental Specialist working with a company that has many contracts with the military, I built a few temporary decontamination units for the personnel working on the submarine. The crumpled nose (sonar) section was comparable to how the front of a vehicle looked after a head-on collision except the metal was in excess of 3 inches thick. If you've never seen a submarine of this size in dry dock, they're much larger than many can imagine. Prayers go out to the crew and the crew member who lost his life. May he rest in paradise 🙏🏼

[marklaplante]

I think the take-away here is just knowing that even though we've been braving the oceans for hundreds of years, there are huge parts of it that remain "unknown" as far as oceanographic mapping is concerned. I remember a similar incident near Guam involving the USS San Francisco (SSN 711) maybe 16 or 17 years ago. Again, faulty charts, poor navigation planning resulted in the accident. One crewman died in that accident if I remember correctly. Unlike TV, we do not have bow windows (would be totally useless anyhow) and do not use active sonar for navigation purposes. As one other viewer pointed out, "mountains do not make noise". Sad to read about though. The author had difficulty with the displacement values he was reporting. I served onboard the USS Jacksonville (SSN 699) and she displaced 9600 tons. Seawolf class is larger, which means more water volume displaced. Not sure if his 9000 pounds should have been 9000 tons, but even that number seems low to me.

[jesstreloar]

The first report of this I seen had USS Connecticut off course by a significant margin, straying into an area on the chart clearly marked as a danger to navigation at depth. Though the 'exact' location of the danger was not listed. The ship had had issues brought up in the last two navigation evaluations accomplished. Lack of training or a complete lack of care for their boat. Yes, the Captain, the Exec, and the Chief of the Boat should have gotten sacked. Also the sounder was known to be reading wrong. The day watch notified the conn, but this information was not convened to the next two watches. Because the unit was 'known' to be reading wrong the numbers recorded in the log were an issue for the investigators. I believe the C.O.B. was returned to duty with a letter.

[siliconvalleyengineer]

I was a steam turbin machinist / mechanical assembler at Westinghouse Marine Division in Sunnyvale, CA from 1982-1994. During those years the SSN21, SSN22, SSN23 Seawolf turbins, gearing and related components were manucafured, Im very proud of the personal time I have invested in those turbines. The stealthy Seawolfs have the most powerful turbins which equals speed, technically advanced weapon systems and are still the most deadly submarines ever put to sea. The truth of the matter is the forward looking navigation radar was malfunctioning in a way the crew could not detect that, and the sub ran into that mountain.

[RoderickGMacLeod]

@Dark Seas

You've got some units messed up here. There's a big difference between pounds and tons. It's Mark 48, not Em Kay

[toma.]

I am a retired QMC(SS). Your story stated that the CO, XO and CMC (COB) were relieved for cause. If the issue was navigation, why was the Navigator and the ANAV not also relieved? This is a very standard practice when there is a "Navigational Error".

QMC(SS)
USN (Ret.)
83-04

[MrJakmatt]

I was conning in the South China Sea onboard USS Stockdale when this happened. We were sent to covertly escort the Connecticut back to port so as not to alert the Chinese to the situation. Twas one of the coolest and scariest things I’ve been apart of, glad no one was seriously hurt from it.

[DirtyD]

Ever since I was a kid, I always thought it was amazing how these subs could navigate under water without being able to see

[DifferentM]

I served on the SSN 702 and SSN 705. Submerged displacement for those boats was 6, 900 Tons. The SSN 711 ran into a seamount in 2005. Yes, there was one fatality, a MM2 from A Division.

[theimperialbeachbum]

The San Fran 711 hit a mountain and survived, what the Connecticut actually hit will likely never be disclosed. But it’s a good video and good story.

[richardjohnson]

I was fishing on the Bering Sea on a large factory trawler. The first mate swallowed a sea mount while at the helm. The entire cod end was filled with mud, we drug that that net through the ocean for hours trying to flush it out of the net, It was a mud slick like I have never seen before, even after trying to get it all out, by the time we got it on deck and emptied it, the mix was starfish, cod and a gooey mud. We had to break out the fire hose to wash off the fish and spent hours shoveling and washing the deck. The factory foremen were pissed because the mud got down into the live tanks and ruined many blades in the fillet machinery. That first mate got his ass chewed and was gone as soon as we hit Dutch. The mount was charted and he had the instruments to see the sea floor. He F'ed up, at least no major damage was done, but he was still held accountable for his mistake. I can't imagine how scary a sub hitting one of those at 20 knots would be, I bet the crew was shitting their pants.

[TheKaffeeKlatsch]

As a former submariner I understand how difficult it would be to put video clips of nuclear powered submarines together for a video or documentary/video. Still I find difficult to watch when the boats on screen have no connection to the boat in question. The USS Nautilus is light years away from USS Seawolf.

[earth]

934 pounds, a paper or plastic submarine, must also be filled with helium.

[Homiesapian]

There are more planes in the ocean than submarines in the sky 🤌

[wkgurr]

This incident sounds like a CFIT on an airplane. In both cases, plane or sub, this is usually due to pilot error and firing the top brass of this sub was the right thing to do. As with CFIT in commercial airplanes a more careful selection of human ressources might have prevented this incident. I wonder if the navy has implemented CRM on their subs. Or if the tendency to operate within a rigid hierarchical command structure has prevented or hampered this. If this is the case the navy better reassess their way of running things on subs.

[KennyInSubic]

@0:46 The ships patch on his uniform is from the USS Nautilus SSN-571.

[swagmanexplores]

The memory of that crash must be ‘Haunting in Connecticut’

[jonw]

It is videos like this that make me thankful I chose to go the surface fleet direction instead of becoming a submariner when I was in the Navy.

[LargeHounds]

A submerged submarine displaces its volume weight of water. Its actual weight is irrelevant. It's like a 12 vs 16 lbs bowling ball. They're the same size and displace the same amount of water.