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The top U.S. military official in the Pacific defended the Navy on Tuesday concerning two embarrassing collisions at sea that combined killed 17 sailors, saying that “the fact of the matter is 280-odd other ships weren’t having collisions.”

The comments by Adm. Phil Davidson came during questioning at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing after he said the Navy’s senior leadership feels “an immense amount of accountability” for disasters involving the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain. The ships collided with commercial vessels about two months apart in the summer of 2017, with the sailors drowning inside flooded compartments.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) asked Davidson, who oversaw the Navy’s investigation of the disasters, about the recent publication of investigative reports by ProPublica in which former senior defense officials said Navy leaders had ignored pleas for help to make sure sailors were appropriately trained and ships were well maintained. The senator appeared to take exception to Davidson’s remarks.