Collision of USS JOHN MCCAIN and TANKER ALNIC MC (Ship Traffic Track Animation)

Youtube via G-Captain ^ | 8/23/17 | AIS

[Rebelbase]

The tanker makes a hard turn to port and T-Bones the John McCain starting at around 0:50 in the video.

Video Animation

G-Captain article

[Rebelbase]

Intentional, IMO.

[Rebelbase]

Title modified to fit.

Original title: Collision of US Guided missile destroyer JOHN MCCAIN and TANKER ALNIC MC in Singapore waters

[Sacajaweau]

Like I said yesterday....sabotage....

[Rebelbase]

Rewind the video link or use this one to start at the beginning https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=67&v=vlrA36GzHNs

[Rebelbase]

Screwed up the video link, just back track to 0:50.

[Jim W N]

Anything like the collision of JOHN MCCAIN and AMERICA?

[Spktyr]

The McCain is not indicated in the track, as it is a warship and doesn’t broadcast its location. The Alnic could just as easily have been trying to evade or simply heaving to after the collision.

[jaydubya2]

"Intentional, IMO."

On who's part? It looks like the Alnic MC was steaming straight ahead.

[Lou L]

The Alnic could just as easily have been trying to evade or simply heaving to after the collision.

You're absolutely correct. We don't see the McCain in this animation, but if you watch the speed of the Alnic, it slows to almost DIW immediate after the turn to port. It would not appear that it turned in an attempt to hit the destroyer.

[Rebelbase]

Watch again. The tanker is coming from the NE.

[TangoLimaSierra]

The USS McCain is limited because it can only turn left.

[PGR88]

Here's a picture of the Alinc MC. As tankers go, this one is "only" 50K DWT - and "only" 2 football fields long. At night, they are lit up brighter than the Rockefeller Center - and are the same size. If this was a typical tanker or crude carrier (150K DWT or more), the McCain would be at the bottom of the ocean right now.

This accident occurred in the busiest shipping lane in the world. Was every officer playing video games on their cell phone at the time? Was anyone on watch?

I simply can not believe that 1) anyone in the Navy bureaucracy has the balls to push the BS excuse "we were possibly hacked" and 2) that people actually believe it.

[mosesdapoet]

Thanks for the posting
What I find troubling is that first reports of this blamed the McCain and the US Navy for the collsion and some radio reports continue to do so. when it’s the other way around.

IF YOU HEAR SUCH A REPORT OVER YOUR LOCAL STATION SEND THAT STATION THIS REPORT

[IYAS9YAS]

What I find troubling is that first reports of this blamed the McCain and the US Navy for the collsion and some radio reports continue to do so. when it’s the other way around.

This video shows nothing of the sort. It shows only one track, and doesn't give any indication that the commercial ship turned before impact. Without the corresponding McCain track, it's worthless noise.

[House Atreides]

Jeez, not again. We went through this exact misinterpretation of the tracking (and TIMING OF EVENTS) with the Fitzgerald.

Get real!

[miliantnutcase]

Doesn’t matter in the Navy’s eyes the faster more maneuverable ship needs to get out of the way. When in command of a warship you need to always be defensive in your movements. Now when the insurance companies duke it out you might have a point ;-)

[SargeK]

I’m not sure from the animation but I believe that the purple line is a VTS, Vessel Traffic Separation scheme. The tanker was bound SW on its side of the VTS. The VTS is like a median in an interstate highway. It’s to keep inbound and outbound traffic safely separated.

COLREGS require that vessels stay as far as they safely can to the starboard edge of their VTS lane. Just like a highway, you stay right except to pass. All vessels are supposed to move with the flow in the lane. With a few exceptions, no one should be in the “median”. Vessels should not cross the VTS, but if they do are required to cross as close to right angles as possible. VTS are usually controlled to ensure safe intervals between vessels.

It looks like the tanker was on her side of the VTS.

[Norseman]

>>Intentional, IMO.<<

And your opinion is almost certainly wrong. For starters the tanker is not capable of turning that sharply at the speed it was going and almost certainly had its bow shoved to port by the collision with the McCain. Granted, it might have started to turn to port in an effort to avoid the McCain, but there’s no way it made that sharp turn at that speed in that time in order to t-bone the McCain. The McCain was almost certainly in the way. For what reason, we’ll have to wait and see. There is a report of loss of steering control on the McCain, but I don’t know if it’s believable or not.

Also, note the congestion around the Alnic at the time of the collision. There were three commercial ships that I would estimate were within a mile of each other. If you look at the location of the Team Oslo from about .38 on the video until the time of the collision at .52 on the video, the Team Oslo (I think that’s what its name is anyway) was traveling faster than the Alnic and passed it on the right. Given that the McCain was hit on the port side, it was apparently located to the starboard side of the Alnic initially and could well have been in the direct path of the approaching Team Oslo. Evading it might well have put it inadvertently in the immediate path of the Alnic.

I’ve written elsewhere that this could turn out to also be the reason for the Fitzgerald collision. It was in the path of an approaching vessel, the Wan Hai, before colliding eventually with the Crystal. And traffic around the McCain was much denser than around the Fitzgerald at the time of its collision.

[Norseman]

Moderator: Since there is absolutely no justification for subtitling this post with the accusatory “The tanker makes a hard turn to port and T-Bones the John McCain starting at around 0:50 in the video.” I’d suggest it be changed.

Search engines could very well locate that comment and the erroneous information would spread further from this site.

More appropriate would be: “Video of tanker track that collided with the USS McCain” without the unproven, and probably wrong, accusation that it was an intentional ramming.

[DoodleDawg]

OK, so I'm not a sailor, never have been a sailor, and never pretend to be. But as I'm watching the video a couple of things jump out at me. So bear with me and maybe someone can explain where I'm wrong.

First, the McCain was hit in her port side towards the back. The tanker had damage on her starboard side bow. If both ships are traveling in the same direction then either the tanker turned into the McCain or the McCain crossed across the front of the tanker in order for the damage to happen in that area.

Second, at about the 43 second mark of the video the tanker is being overtaken by the ship, the Team Oslo. In addition the ship, the Guang Zhou Wan, has tailgating the tanker during the whole time. By about the 55 second mark the Team Oslo has overtaken the Alnick.

Three, there is nothing ahead of either the Team Oslo or the Alnick. A big patch of empty space.

So perhaps someone can explain it to me. If the McCain was to the right of the Alnick then before she could have turned and cut the Alnick off she would have been run over by the Team Oslo. So it's more likely that she was in the same left hand lane that the Alnick was in. Is it possible that the McCain was going slower than the Alnick and at the last minute the McCain was maneuvering to avoid rear-ended and was instead hit as she turned? Of could she have been avoiding the Team Oslo and cut across the bow of the Alnick? Does either of those sound plausible to all you sailors out there?