Posted on 06/25/2017 7:21:19 PM PDT by TXnMA
Be wary of fringe websites and purveyors of conspiracy theories. The sea remains a dangerous place and it only takes a small combination of human errors to create a cluster fuck. Everything I’m hearing, from sane and reasonably informed sources are saying that this was an accident, albeit one that should not have happened. When you have a 40,000 ton container ship running on auto pilot in one of the busier shipping lanes, the odds of that ending well just on that basis alone, are not good.
Does Benson get to keep that plaque?
You'd think they'd have a satellite phone for backup communications - or something.
My guess is that that first hour was (without a Captain) "nothing but "***holes and elbows" -- trying to save a ship with a big hole in the hull.
Not sure comms was a priority. I, for one, have been studying this since the news came out -- and I never thought of the comms in the birds...
Good thinking!
“The captains state room door has a plaque with all of the former COs names on it. Every ship has that.”
It’s a really cool plaque, but I guess Benson cannot take it home with him.
“The impact not only ripped a hole in the steel superstructure in the stateroom but also shifted the contents and shape of the steel so Benson was squeezed out the hull and was outside the skin of the ship,”
I’m guessing that woke him up.
Anyone else have curiosity about how fragile the communications are in the even of a hostile fire hit?
Yes, this was a major crash, but I would have expected a bit more communication redundancy for just such a damage event.
You need to stop with the McCain stuff.
You might want to revise your post: "...the "official" version is that the missiles on McCain's aircraft fired themselves..."
The official version is that that stray voltage on a rocket pod on another plane (a F-4 Phantom) caused a Zuni rocket to fire.
McCain's plane that day had only iron bombs on it. And it wasn't even hit by the missile, it was the plane next to him.
I am asking you as a FRiend to just give it a rest. It does you a disservice.
It is true it isn’t an official navy publication, but USNI is considered to be the professional voice of the Navy, and is the single most influential non-official source. But as you correctly said, not official.
Going back to my Navy days of OOD on the surface (Officer of the Deck on a Nuc submarine), I too wonder how this could have happened.
I haven't heard what the visibility was that night but since I am sitting on the Pacific coast right now (US coastline), the fog out here can be pretty thick. Therefore, maybe the visibility was such that the lookouts did NOT see the ship until seconds before the collusion.
With a typical junior officer OOD at night, maybe he called it (based on radar/AIS) that the merchant ship was going to pass on his (Navy) starboard side but actually they were on a collusion course. Maybe a watch stander disagreed but at 2 am, the OOD assured him that he had contact XYZ taken care of.
It seems just as likely that low visibility, lots of contacts and some confusion about who was who, they just plain blew it.
I feel confident that if my first CO had not been called by me with a close contact EVEN IF WE DIDN'T collide, it would have seemed just as bad for my career.
I do remember when we were on the surface transiting to a port visit in Scotland that some confusion happened where two surface contacts were confused. I was U/I (under instruction, before I was qualified) and one of the more senior Lieutenants made a major screw up. Fortunately, there are probably only two of us who might remember that night. But stuff happens, that was also on mid watch.
You get the credit, FRiend...nice job with it!
the ships crew has been given time away from the ship in an attempt to recover from the collision
Let us hope these hardy warriors stand up to combat a bit better.
I am curious about the image showing the diagram at the website. I think someone would get in hot water for taking that image if they find out who took it.
I would expect that radio (comm shack) was near the captain's quarters. Since the CO was lucky to be alive afterwards, I would expect that maybe major damage was done to the comm shack. With people trying to combat flooding, saving lives etc., any radio message was probably not at the top of priorities. I read somewhere that they did communicate by Satphone which means you are probably right,
Remember this is just another media outlet. Who knows what was sent and received, or when it actually was. Nobody is going to volunteer anything or correct any misinformation until they themselves are sure about what happened and form a plan to minimize damages and negative publicity as much as possible.
Freegards
Perhaps I let my dislike for the guy cloud my judgement, not recognizing that I am besmirching the character of fellow FReepers in the process.
Since you asked so nice, I hereby pledge to refrain from accusing John McCain for starting the fire on The USS Forrestal.
Mod Squad, feel free to delete my post #22.
No. The board wants the evidence intact. This is about to get very nasty indeed.
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