Illinois sailor tried to save shipmates after Fitzgerald collision, mother says

A U.S. Navy sailor from Herrin, Illinois, who survived the collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a Philippine-flagged container ship, dove multiple times to try and save shipmates as the ship flooded, his mother told the Associated Press.

Brayden Harden, 19, was knocked out of his bunk when the two ships collided Saturday around 2:20 a.m., said mother Mia Sykes of Raleigh, North Carolina. Harden told his mother that four men in his sleeping berth and three in the berth above him did not survive, according to the Associated Press.

Sykes said she hopes her son can now come home to try and work through the traumatic event.

The crash, which occurred off the coast of Japan, remains under investigation and the cause of the collision is not yet known.

On Sunday, the Navy called off a search for seven missing sailors after divers found several bodies in the ship’s flooded compartments.

This story was originally published June 18, 2017 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Illinois sailor tried to save shipmates after Fitzgerald collision, mother says."