The OOD and CO are screwed.
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Posted on 06/19/2017 10:20:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
Last Updated Jun 19, 2017 11:37 AM EDT
TOKYO -- Japan's coast guard is investigating why it took nearly an hour for a deadly collision between a U.S. Navy destroyer and a container ship to be reported.
A coast guard official said Monday they are trying to find out what the crew of the Philippine-flagged ACX Crystal was doing before reporting the collision off Japan's coast to authorities 50 minutes later.
The ACX Crystal collided with the USS Fitzgerald off Japan's coast, killing seven of the destroyer's crew of nearly 300. The ships collided early Saturday morning, when the Navy said most of the 300 sailors on board would have been sleeping. Authorities have declined to speculate on a cause while the crash remains under investigation.
A track of the much-larger container ship's route by MarineTraffic, a vessel-tracking service, shows it made a sudden turn as if trying to avoid something at about 1:30 a.m., before continuing eastward. It then made a U-turn and returned around 2:30 a.m. to the area near the collision.
The impact crushed the starboard side of the Fitzgerald. The ship was listing as it sailed into its home port in Yokosuka, Japan, Saturday, CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy reports. The commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet said the sailors' actions kept the ship from sinking.
"This was not a small collision," Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin said. "It was right near the pilot's house, and there is a big puncture."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
But no one is looking for you to sink you. The ship knows where it is but transponder gives out more info than the ship wants to share.
What leads you to think the maneuvering was before the collision?
There is a history of Philippine vessels, and irregularities. IE; Dona Paz, MV Vector, and other Sea disasters.
It goes on and on. Of course, CO, XO and Navigator will have to explain how the OOD and CIC watch officer were properly qualified for their positions, etc. etc.
Fertile grounds for a board of inquiry.
Bottom line though, some poor O-2 / O-3 deck officer is in a world of hurt.
The OOD and CO are screwed.
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That depends on many factors. What information was passed to the bridge from combat about the contact, did the bridge watch see her. What did the bridge watch determine Crystals track to be based on eyeballs, and the bridge wing compass. The only answers to these questions are found in the deck log and the testimony of the personnel on watch at the time of collision.
It appears you are correct, and according to the new timeline shown in the above two charts, I stand corrected.
“The OOD and CO are screwed.”
Courts Martial is the only just outcome.
They are screwed because they were the responsible officers on watch. Errors in judgment, misinterpretation of the Crystals track, etc. will come out in the investigation
But...., but..., but..., Mr. President [of the board of inquiry], I was the stand on vessel. I stood on. I was following the rules and the bitch rammed me....
In my experience sailing on the Pacific, Japanese bridge watch standers know only “Mariner’s English,” using the same 300 or so “official words” on VHF. Just business, then silence.
Filipino watch standers will talk to you all night as long as you’re in VHF range about their years in the USA, their brother in San Diego, their other brother in the USN, etc.
Way out in the middle of nowhere I’d often chat with the lights seen on the horizon on VHF radio. Often I’d ask them how my 48’ steel sailboat looked on radar, and they’d say they didn’t see it at all, or my 67’ aluminum mast. Merchies turn the gain way down to ignore “sea clutter” (and sailboats.) (This was before small AIS for sailboats.)
People died, and the ship (no matter what they say now) will require an extensive rebuild, like a car in a major wreck with a bent frame and everything loose/cracked/suspect.
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>> “Fitz should have ensured a full nautical mile of separation no matter what the other captain said. and notwithstanding any other circumstances.” <<
Assuming that anyone was awake on the bridge.
I don’t believe that would be a viable assumption, considering the circumstances.
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He was right, dead right, as he sailed along.
But he was just as dead, as if he’d been wrong.
AKA “the law of gross tonnage.”
AKA “right of weight.”
Trust me, at least six persons from a LT to a seaman were on the bridge, all alert, all mistaken.
I made a snarky comment earlier about “everybody being asleep’ and a number of Freepers jumped on me and explained the full intricacies of US Naval Watch protocol and their constant vigilance to prevent all accidents, day or night.
And yet ... a container ship snuck up on a US destroyer and rammed it. I think a lot of sailors were not doing their duty that night. Commander most of all.
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Travis, your definition of “Alert” must be grossly different than mine!
I know you know your profession well, but this seems extreme.
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Agree!
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There is both a surface search radar and a navigation radar. There are also ESM warning receivers that would have detected a rather close radar from another vessel. And then sonar would also likely have contact. And then there are the lookouts armed with Mk-1 Mod 0 eyeballs, night vision scopes..., etc.
There is no possible way that the OOD on the Fitzgerald could not have know that this merchant was his biggest single problem.
Agree 100%. Like to see the bridge SOP as well. No way the Captain shouldn’t have been on the bridge.
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