Clues Sought In Fatal Ferry Ride -- 19 U.S. Sailors Die In Israeli Accident

HAIFA, Israel - Investigators searched yesterday for clues as to why a chartered ferry capsized in choppy seas, killing at least 19 U.S. sailors who were in the Middle East as part of Operation Desert Shield.

Survivors said the Israeli ferry Tuvia went under almost instantly after it was swamped early yesterday while ferrying about 100 sailors back to the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga from shore leave in Haifa.

``All of a sudden I saw water just come flying in. It was maybe two seconds and the boat rolled right over,'' said Chief Petty Officer Lance Vickery of Jacksonville, Fla.

Israeli divers retrieved six bodies from the sunken craft in 65 feet of water. The others were found dead on the surface or died of injuries after being rescued alive, officials said. Three dozen sailors were taken to hospitals, but most were released.

The accident was the deadliest involving U.S military personnel in Operation Desert Shield, and it raised the number of Americans who have died to at least 73.

Several sailors rescued from the Tuvia said the craft may have been overloaded. But Gen. Micha Ram, the commander of Israel's navy, said the Tuvia had been licensed to carry 130 passengers but took only about 100 because the seas were running high.

Survivors told of harrowing moments in the water, clinging to life jackets and debris from the 57-foot-long, double-deck ferry. At least some of the injured were struck by a rescue boat.

Six of the injured remained in Haifa's Rambam Hospital last night.

Col. Ranaan Gissen, the Israeli army's deputy spokesman, said more than 30 others were plucked from the waters unharmed in a rescue operation by both U.S. and Israeli forces.

Israel army radio reported that some of the sailors had been drunk and at least one of the dead victims was handcuffed, apparently after being arrested by U.S. military police for drunkenness.

However, a pentagon spokesman said no one aboard the boat was in handcuffs.

The Tuvia capsized shortly after midnight about 200 yards from the Saratoga, which was anchored outside the harbor's breakwater about a mile offshore. The waves were reported at three to four feet and winds at 35 miles an hour when the craft capsized.

A U.S. Navy spokesman, Cmdr. Craig Quigley, said all 1,920 sailors who began liberty Friday were ordered to return to the carrier and three escort ships to try to account for all sailors.

The Saratoga task force, based at Mayport Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla., includes the destroyer Sampson, the cruiser South Carolina and combat stores ship Sirius.

At Mayport, families of the sailors aboard the Saratoga nervously awaited information.

Families were asking ``Why didn't this happen some other time?'' not as close to Christmas, said Cmdr. Jerry O'Connor, senior chaplain at the air station. ``We're expecting some other kind of casualty and everyone gears up for something militarily speaking,'' O'Connor said. ``We don't expect something like a ferry boat capsizing.''

Quigley said bodies of the victims would probably be flown back to the United States starting today.

Gissen said police and port officials were conducting separate investigations into the cause of the sinking. The U.S. Navy also ordered a probe of the accident.

Seaman Michael Benjamin of San Antonio, Texas, said he was standing in the back of the ferry when he saw water pouring in as the craft bounced over the waves.

``We were going on the waves, and I just noticed one that was bigger than normal and then we noticed another one that was bigger than normal. The next thing I know, all I saw coming in was water. I was tilted forward, I heard a lot of yelling, `She's going down.' ''

In other Persian Gulf developments yesterday:

-- Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, told U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia that they hope a peaceful solution to the Persian Gulf crisis is still possible, but emphasized that Iraq must withdraw fully from Kuwait or there will be war.

-- A senior Iraqi official, echoing President Saddam Hussein, said his country would never give up Kuwait and would use chemical weapons if attacked. Parliamentary speaker Sadi Mahdi Saleh said Iraq, under a U.N. ultimatum to quit Kuwait by Jan. 15 or face attack from U.S.-led forces, had no nuclear arms but possessed equally effective chemical weapons.

-- Less than a week after a delegation from Moscow persuaded the Baghdad government to let Soviet citizens working in Iraq go home, several hundred Soviet technicians are resisting departure, preferring to stay on rather than return to their unsettled homeland, Soviet and Western officials said.

-- Britain's Prince Charles rode a tank to visit British troops and U.S. Marines in the Saudi Arabian desert. ``It was thrilling,'' said Capt. Michael Castagnero of Pitcairn, Pa.