Investigators look into fatal crash - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Investigators look into fatal crash

A sailor was killed on Christmas Day in Bahrain when the 25-foot patrol boat he was driving crashed into a barge, Navy officials said.

Master-at-Arms Seaman Apprentice Joshua Seitz, 19, died in the collision about 11 p.m., said Ed Buice, a spokesman for Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, Buice said.

Two other sailors on the boat were injured in the crash, but their injuries are not life-threatening, said Mille Slamin, a Navy spokeswoman in Bahrain.

The rigid hull inflatable boat was part of a harbor patrol unit conducting a routine patrol, Buice said. All three sailors were assigned to Naval Security Force, Naval Support Activity Bahrain.

At the time of the crash, the boat was about 450 yards from a pier in the port of Mina Salmon and heading back to its station, Buice said.

The top portion of the boat was sheared off in the crash, but the vessel did not sink and was towed back to the unit’s station, Slamin said.

Seitz, of Sinking Springs, Pa., enlisted in September 2007 and was assigned to the security force in May 2008, Navy records show.