US military investigation reveals cause of drowning of two elite naval officers in the Arabian Sea

A US military investigation has concluded that the cause of the drowning of two elite US Navy SEALs while trying to board a ship carrying illegal Iranian-made weapons bound for Yemen was “due to a blatant failure in training and a lack of understanding of what to do after falling into deep, turbulent waters.”

The Associated Press report concluded that the drowning of Navy officers Christopher J. Chambers and Nathan Gage Ingram could have been avoided. But both sank quickly in the high seas off the coast of Somalia, weighed down by the heavy equipment they were carrying and unaware or ignoring concerns that their flotation devices could not compensate for the extra weight.

The highly critical and heavily edited report — written by a Navy officer outside the Naval Special Warfare Command, which oversees the elite Navy SEALs — found “deficiencies, gaps and inconsistencies” in training, policies, tactics and procedures as well as “conflicting guidance” on when and how to use emergency flotation devices and additional flotation materials that could have kept them alive.

The Associated Press obtained the report upon request before it was released to the public. The mission was intended to intercept weapons bound for Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have launched missile and drone attacks on U.S. commercial and naval vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza a year ago. U.S. retaliatory strikes have so far failed to deter their attacks.

Mission gone wrong