Newly released Navy records say GPS track lines from three boats were deliberately deleted after a June 2023 training mishap at the mouth of San Diego Bay that sent five sailors to the hospital. The finding, buried in an internal review obtained by reporters, is now raising hard questions about why key digital evidence vanished in a case the Navy later said prompted procedural changes.
Documents obtained by Team 10 show the 91-page investigation - written the July after the crash and sent to the commanding officer of the Naval Special Warfare Group One Logistics Support Unit - concluded that track lines, the GPS breadcrumbs that show where a boat traveled, were "deliberately" removed from all three rigid-hull inflatable boats after the accident, according to 10News. Investigators flagged the deletions after confirming other boats back on base still had intact tracks.
The mishap itself unfolded just before 2 a.m. on June 16, 2023, when an 11-meter rigid-hull inflatable boat struck the Zuniga Point Jetty as it returned to Coronado, and five sailors were taken to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, according to reporting by City News Service and the Times of San Diego. At the time, the Navy publicly described the crash as a routine training mishap while an official investigation got underway.
What investigators found
The internal report ultimately put the blame on the boat's coxswain. Investigators said he was operating at a "dangerously high rate of speed" and found he was "derelict in his duties," according to the documents. The sailor told investigators that a motion-sickness medication had made him "a little drowsy," and he was the only service member to receive non-judicial punishment after the mishap, per 10News. Those conclusions were central to how the command assigned individual accountability.
Missing data and safety lapses
Investigators did not just focus on speed. The report found that night-vision goggles that were supposed to be used for the mission were never handed out, visibility that night was poor, and two of the five lights on the jetty were inoperable. The document says those conditions made navigation more difficult and likely contributed to the collision.
The review closed with seven recommendations for Naval Special Warfare operations. Among them was a seemingly basic but now very pointed directive: GPS track lines should never be deleted.
Naval response and legal note
Naval Special Warfare command told reporters it has carried out procedural enhancements in the wake of the mishap and forwarded the investigation's recommendations to leadership for implementation.
The coxswain's discipline was handled as non-judicial punishment, commonly called "captain's mast" - a command-level measure under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that the Navy's legal office describes as an administrative forum for minor misconduct, according to the Navy JAG.
Why the deletions matter
Digital track lines are crucial for reconstructing what a crew did on the water and for confirming whether standard safety steps were followed. Investigators say their removal undercuts efforts to fully understand what went wrong and to prevent a repeat.
A former SEAL quoted in the documents told reporters that the closed nature of special-warfare units can make internal inquiries particularly difficult.
Team 10 obtained the 91-page investigation after nearly two years through a Freedom of Information Act request. The report does not identify who deleted the GPS tracks, and the Navy declined to say whether any further administrative or criminal steps will be opened beyond the non-judicial action already taken.
