At 1 a.m. on 1 October 1972, while in action in the Demilitarized Zone, the Newport News sustained an in-bore explosion in her center 8-inch gun of number two turret. A defective auxiliary detonating fuze caused the projectile to blow up almost immediately upon firing.
A total of twenty sailors were killed and another 36 suffered serious injuries from toxic gas inhalation. The barrel proper was blown forward from the gun. After making its way to Subic Bay in the Philippines, the ship was out of commission for several weeks as its damaged gun was removed and its port plated over.
The explosion had caused extensive damage to the center gun mount. It was proposed to replace the damaged mount with one from sister ships Des Moines (CA-134) or Salem (CA-139), both of which had been decommissioned, but this was rejected as being too expensive.
As a result, the damage was not repaired and the turret was simply closed off for the remainder of the ship's career.
--Cooter
No comments:
Post a Comment