Navy Investigation Shows Data Deleted After Crash That Hospitalized Five Sailors

After five sailors were sent to the hospital, an internal Navy investigation found that evidence in the case had been deleted. Back in 2023, the Navy reported that a routine Naval Special Warfare training operation in San Diego Bay resulted in a violent crash in the early morning. A rigid-hull inflatable boat (RHIB) hit the mouth of the bay upon its return, injuring five people on board. One sailor was knocked unconscious after falling off the boat and had to be rescued by a teammate who jumped in after him. 

The Navy didn't say anything further about the incident, but an investigation by San Diego news agency Team 10 uncovered a 91-page document in 2025 via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that reveals track lines and GPS details had been deleted from the three boats involved in the crash. The report also revealed that a Navy SEAL was one of the five people injured despite the Navy later claiming no SEALs were involved. "My guess is one of them was trying to make sure that they didn't get their butt burned off for this accident," a former Navy SEAL, Jake Zweig, told 10 News.

The Navy's public reports have not matched the investigation obtained by Team 10, likely to protect the Navy SEALs. While the legal document mentions members from SEAL Team 1 being at the safety briefing, on the boat during the incident, and in follow-up interviews, the Navy publicly stated that no SEALs were involved at all — although they mentioned a Navy SEAL being injured in an earlier statement. When Team 10 reached out about this discrepancy, a Naval Special Warfare Command spokesperson, Captain Jodie Cornell, told them that no SEALS were involved at all. "SEALs are gonna cover their butts. Probably the hardest community in the world to do an investigation on. You know, it's closed. It's a closed community. They're not opening it up," said former SEAL Jake Zweig. 

The official investigation that wasn't released states that the sailor steering the boat was largely to blame for the crash, despite receiving a light punishment. During the Navy's investigation, he admitted to being motion sick, drowsy, and rushing to get back to shore at a "dangerously high rate of speed." He was also not wearing the night-vision goggles required for the mission, reducing his visibility. Everyone involved, including the SEAL, denied deleting the GPS track lines. Team 10 asked the Navy if it had figured out who deleted the information, but Cornell only said that the incident prompted them to change procedures and policies to make training safer. At least this crash had no fatalities — there are many Navy ship accidents outside of combat.