March 9, 2014

Fire reported on Australian submarine HMAS Waller - Feb 27, 2014

On February 27, 2014 a fire occurred in the forward battery compartment of Austrialia's Collins submarine HMAS Waller.

COMMENT

An Anonymous commenter (see Comments below) has advised me that the original Submarine Matters comment and detail on this page was incorrect. Therefore I'll let readers decide - with a:

- a dramatic version from the Mainstream Media and http://www.news.com.au/national/fire-emergency-aboard-hmas-waller-as-indian-submarine-blaze-kills-two/story-fncynjr2-1226840169661 and

- the (or an) official report http://news.defence.gov.au/2014/02/27/fire-onboard-royal-australian-navy-submarine/ . This is the official report from Australia's Department of Defence: 

Fire onboard Royal Australian Navy submarine

27 February 2014 | Media Release

This afternoon HMAS Waller, one of the Royal Australian Navy’s submarines, experienced a fire while on the surface off the West Australian coast. Emergency response actions were taken to extinguish the fire.
There were no casualities. As a precaution, four members of the ship’s crew who were involved in the response to the fire have been landed for observation.
HMAS Waller had recently completed a scheduled maintenance period and was at sea as part of her return to operations.
A full investigation into the incident will be held.
At this stage no further details are available.
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If the commenter wants me to add more I can if I'm pointed to another official report.
Regards
Pete

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

These statements about the fire on board Waller are incredibly erroneous. As a journalist, your duty is to the truth and your account of where the fire was, what caused it and what measures were used to combat the fire and protect the crew on board are all false.
Take it from someone who was there.

Pete said...

Hi Anonymous

Thanks for setting me straight.

I've altered the article accordingly - highlighting the official Aus DoD Media Release.

If you want to point me to more - by all means.

Regards

Pete