Can anyone explain this track for the ACX Crystal?
There is a lot of good discussion on this thread as well.
Additionally, there are several things I see that buttress his observations on this:
1.) The 90 degree turn at 1630 UTC (0130 local time) with the accompanying dramatic dropoff in speed. That alone appears to support a collision.
2.) The data indicates that with almost no delay, literally three minutes, the ship began picking up speed and resuming its course. To me, that is also evidence the ACX Crystal was on autopilot. If not, any normal mariner would have stopped the ship dead in the water and stayed that way.
Looking at the times, it took about eight minutes for the ACX Crystal to resume its course and pick up speed again, something I just don’t think any mariner would have done on a civilian ship in peacetime.
During that eight minute time frame, while the CRX Crystal was on autopilot, I don’t doubt that the 20 man crew was running around in total pandemonium and confusion (Including the Captain) while the lone guy on the bridge who was probably surfing the Internet or watching a DVD was standing in the middle of the bridge with alarms going off, the ship thudding and heeling as it began to pick up speed and steer back to the original course, phones going off, people arriving on the bridge, and him having no idea what happened.
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Yes.
Ever since 1:50 PM on the 17th, I have been doing so. See My #204, posted at that time.
In fact, At #73 on this very thread, I posted the ACX Crystal's tabular AIS data for the period surrounding the collision, and posted the track in far more detail...
Bottom Line: The collision INITIATED ACX Crystal's bizarre maneuvering. The collision was not a result of that maneuvering!