Navy Pauses to Take Stock of Safety Practices : Military: The unprecedented review silences airfields. Ships steam on skeleton crews. Sailors are urged to put their ‘hearts and minds’ to the task.

WASHINGTON —  Navy airfields fell silent and ships steamed on skeleton crews Wednesday as the Navy entered the first day of an unprecedented safety review.

The Navy announced the unusual action Tuesday, two days after the destroyer Kinkaid and a freighter collided in the Malacca Strait, killing a Navy crewman. It was the latest of 10 significant accidents that have killed 10 people and injured 71 since early October.

Aboard the Navy guided missile cruiser Antietam, in port at Long Beach, Capt. Larry E. Eddingfield called on sailors Wednesday to “search our hearts and our minds and make sure we’re doing it right.”

Throughout the day, 16 ships in the port and another 22 Long Beach-based ships at sea “stood down” to begin the unprecedented review.

Capt. Richard B. McKenna, chief of staff for the commander of the Naval Surface Group in Long Beach, said a classroom atmosphere will prevail during the break in normal operations, giving sailors and officers a time to meditate.

“You won’t see people running up and down ladders and jumping through hatches,” McKenna said. “They will sit in small groups . . . to review those things that are an inherent danger.”

Every hour on the hour, Capt. Bob McClendon Jr., commanding officer of the Recruit Training Command at the Naval Training Center, lectured shifts of 5,600 men in boot camp at the San Diego facility, which has been dubbed the “cradle of the Navy.”

The stand-down will alter the normal routine of 140,000 Navy personnel in the San Diego area, forcing them to examine carefully how they do their jobs.

Flight operations at North Island and Miramar naval air stations will be severely cut back today and Friday, although both stations will remain open. Miramar will continue its “bounce” touch-down training practice for pilots of E-2C Hawkeye planes and F-14 Tomcat fighter jets. But Miramar, which usually has about 350 aircraft taking off every day, will ground most other flights.

Although still recovering from last month’s earthquake, San Francisco area Navy bases, where about 43,000 military personnel serve, readied for the safety classes.

On Wednesday afternoon, a fire drill in conjunction with the safety stand-down took place on the warship Grey, which was docked at the Alameda Naval Station. Sailors were drilled on such tasks as going up the ship’s ladders and donning oxygen masks.

“Right now we’re stopping and taking a look at all our safety procedures in every department and trying to find ways to improve them,” said Bill Valente, a spokesman at the naval station, which employs 16,000 military personnel and 1,000 civilians.

President Bush, who was not notified in advance of the Navy’s planned interruption of operations, nevertheless applauded the move. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the review “is important for the safety of the Navy.”

The Navy also prepared Wednesday to face new questions about its ability to train and supervise young sailors manning a larger and more technologically complex fleet at a time of declining budgets.

The chief of naval operations will testify today on the Navy’s safety record at a Senate hearing. The session was originally intended to review the Navy’s investigation of the April 19 explosion that killed 47 sailors on the battleship Iowa.

So far this year, 67 major accidents have occurred aboard Navy ships, submarines and in aircraft, according to Navy spokesman Lt. Frank Thorp. A total of 102 people have been killed in the incidents.

Vice Adm. John Disher, commander of all Navy training, said the two-day halt in operations will allow his command to review the changes and assure that they are in place and working.

Disher said about half of all Navy accidents are attributable to human error, noting that the people factor is “certainly the most challenging one for us to correct.

“The human being is not perfect, subject to a lot of distractions,” Disher said. “We’ve made greater strides in eliminating other factors outside of human judgment.”

But as the Navy began its self-assessment, both supporters and critics of the service warned that subtle changes in Navy traditions and less subtle cuts in Navy budgets may have contributed to the sudden spurt of accidents.

The Navy “first has got to address whether it’s adequately funding training, which I suspect it’s not,” said Rep. Charles E. Bennett (D-Fla.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s sea power subcommittee.

As the Navy fleet has grown from 472 ships in 1980 to its current level of 561 ships, some critics believe that training and personnel levels have failed to keep up.

Bennett added that the Navy also needs to review its “command process--whether or not some of these accidents are the result of Navy officers not performing very well and not being called to account for it.”

Times staff writers John M. Broder in Washington, Faye Fiore in Long Beach, Suzette Parmley in San Francisco and Nora Zamichow in San Diego contributed to this report.