Once again, we are reminded of the risks that come with having the military as a neighbor.
A Navy P-8A Poseidon patrol and reconnaissance aircraft now sits in shallow water at Kaneohe Bay, having overshot a runway at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the plane appears largely intact, with little evidence of leakage of hazardous materials.
The Navy now has to remove the plane while doing as little damage as possible to the underlying coral reef and marine ecosystem.
That task will be a logistical challenge, but still fairly straightforward. But regrettably, that’s only part of the job.
The Navy squandered much of its goodwill with the public through its mismanagement of the Red Hill fuel leak fiasco. The Navy now must prove to the public — and to the government agencies closely monitoring the recovery — that it can be trusted to do the work properly. That will require full transparency and cooperation with the community and civilian stakeholders, including environmental experts who are rightly worried about damage caused to the nearshore coral.
So far, the results are mixed. The accident occurred on Nov. 20; pictures of the plane sitting in the water circulated widely. But for a week, the Navy provided the barest minimum of information, leaving the public to speculate about the seriousness of the accident — hardly the best way to establish trust.
It wasn’t until Monday that top Navy brass spoke out publicly, describing the situation in more detail and taking questions at a news conference at the Marine base.
“We need to do better in communications,” said Rear Adm. Kevin P. Lenox, at the news conference.
No kidding. One would have thought that lesson was learned long ago.
Nonetheless, here we are. And given the limited information revealed at the news conference, full transparency should not be difficult.
The aircraft is a large one — about 130 feet long, and similar to Boeing’s 737NG commercial jet. Yet there appears to be little damage; indeed, it’s possible the plane could be put back into service. The 2,000 gallons of fuel were drained without spilling a drop into the ocean, the Navy said. Containment booms were placed around the plane almost immediately after it entered the water. The plane will be floated and removed by crane or raised high enough to be put back on land.
Once the plane is removed, the affected coral and surrounding area need to be evaluated by both Navy and civilian experts to determine the scope of the damage. Obviously, the results should be shared with the Kaneohe community and the public at large. And the Navy should pay for any remediation necessary.
No less important is a full, public explanation of what happened. An “off-the-record” safety investigation — one that encourages full candor from the involved parties — will determine how the P-8A ended up in the water. A separate investigation, with legal and disciplinary ramifications, should determine how the crew missed the landing.
The public has an undeniable interest in knowing the full results of both investigations. The Navy’s planes fly near and over densely populated Kaneohe neighborhoods, and over a bay rich with marine life and cultural significance. These are no less important than the aquifer polluted by fuel leaks at Red Hill.
The public has a right to know — not just through public-relations reassurances, but with hard information — that the Navy has its operations under control.
