USS Benfold spent four days without working toilets, AC, and galley services after an engineering failure knocked out power in the South China Sea, marking the second such incident this year. The USS Benfold, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, suffered an "engineering casualty involving its generators" on July 24 while conducting routine operations in the Indo-Pacific, US 7th Fleet spokesperson Cmdr Matthew Comer told CNN.

The Navy said there were no injuries among the crew. What happened aboard USS Benfold?

The power loss affected several essential services aboard the nearly 10,000-ton warship, including its toilets, galley, air conditioning and potable water. The incident also affected the ship's ability to manoeuvre independently, according to the Navy.

The exact cause of the failure remains under investigation. The incident was first reported by USNI News.

The Benfold was eventually taken to Subic Bay in the Philippines for repairs. The Navy said repairs were completed by August 8 and that the destroyer subsequently returned to duty.

The Benfold was not left entirely without support during the incident. The guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls provided cooked meals, while other vessels from the Japan-based USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group also assisted the destroyer during the four-day outage, according to the 7th Fleet.

The incident occurred in the South China Sea in late July, when daytime temperatures typically ranged between about 32°C and 37°C, making the loss of air conditioning particularly difficult for the crew. Former US Navy captain Carl Schuster, who previously experienced a much shorter power loss aboard a destroyer, told CNN that the situation would have placed different pressures on the crew, from engineers working to restore power to navigation officers dealing with the ship's position and weather.

Second US destroyer power failure this yearThe Benfold incident is the second reported power-related failure involving a US Navy destroyer in the Indo-Pacific this year. In May, the USS Higgins lost power and propulsion for several hours in the region after what the Navy described as an electrical-system "engineering casualty".

The incident left the destroyer, which had about 300 crew members, temporarily unable to manoeuvre, CNN reported. The Benfold and Higgins belong to the Arleigh Burke class, the backbone of the US Navy's surface fleet, which has more than 70 destroyers in service.