USS Hartford grounding

On 25 October 2003, USS Hartford, a United States Navy nuclear-powered Los Angeles-class submarine ran aground while leaving the harbor of the NATO Naval Base at the Santo Stefano island in La Maddalena archipelago, Sardinia.

[2] An investigation into the accident revealed that basic navigational errors combined with equipment failures were to blame for the submarine running into the rocky shallows.

Navy divers from USS Emory S. Land inspected Hartford the next day and found large areas of the hull scraped down to bare metal.

[6] Sound damping anechoic tiles had been ripped away, metal grates over the ballast tanks had been badly distorted and the passive sonar hydrophone system damaged in three separate locations.

[6] So severe was the damage, that there was some question as to the structural integrity of the hull;[citation needed] however, temporary repairs were conducted at La Maddalena.