The U.S. Navy said Thursday it will remove the commander and two other senior officers of U.S. destroyer Fitzgerald over the fatal collision with a Filipino container ship off the Japan coast in June.

"Clearly at some point the (ship's) bridge team lost situational awareness," Adm. Bill Moran, vice chief of naval operations, said as the Navy released an investigation of the June 17 accident that killed seven crew members and led to flooding in a section of the Aegis combat system-equipped ship.

The three-member leadership of the destroyer will be detached because "we've lost trust and confidence in their ability to lead in those positions," Moran said. In total, about a dozen sailors will be punished over the accident, according to the Navy.

According to the report, the Fitzgerald was off the coast of Japan's Izu Peninsula, within sight of land, when it collided with the Philippine-flagged container ship at around 1:30 a.m. on June 17.

The seas were calm, the moon was relatively bright and visibility was "unrestricted." The Fitzgerald was operating in a "standard condition" at night, with all exterior lighting off except for navigation lights and all interior lighting switched to red, the report said.

The seven who drowned were all assigned to a crew area called "Berthing 2," where a huge volume of water quickly entered after the ship's hull was punctured in the collision, according to the report.

As many crew members were asleep at the time of the crash, some had to wake shipmates who had slept through the initial impact before climbing a ladder to evacuate flooding. The bunks of the seven deceased sailors were located in the area "closest" to the damaged portion of the ship and "directly in the path of the onrushing water," the report said.

Investigations are still continuing, the Navy official said.

The 8,315-ton destroyer armed with Standard Missile-3 interceptors had been sailing in Japanese coastal waters following a series of ballistic missile launches by Pyongyang.

The Filipino container ship, the 29,060-ton ACX Crystal, is operated by Japanese shipping firm Nippon Yusen K.K.