yeah, right... 
Posted on 06/23/2017 9:44:27 AM PDT by Mariner
The deadly collision between a U.S. destroyer and a container ship June 17 took place while the freighter was on autopilot, according to Navy officials.
The Philippines-flagged cargo ship ACX Crystal was under control of a computerized navigation system that was steering and guiding the container vessel, according to officials familiar with preliminary results of an ongoing Navy investigation.
Investigators so far found no evidence the collision was deliberate.
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
I agree the Captain’s Navy career is likely to be over with. That said, when accepting the position of Captain he has generally accept that most people know what they are doing. I suspect the XO and a few other department heads careers are over as well.
“Check out post 49. Someone seriously postulated that the freighter just lured the Navy ship in close, and then hit the gas.”
I know zero about any water vessel bigger than a canoe, but the idea of a freighter lying in wait and then jamming down the gear shaft and just gunning it (while “rolling coal” as well, obviously) into a battleship is some of the funniest stuff I’ve read in weeks.
I know zip about modern navy operations and would appreciate the benefit of your experience on a serious question. Even with sophisticated radars and electronic systems, do USN surface vessels still have human beings equipped with binoculars and/or night vision devices, literally “on watch” 24/7?
...I think the Fitz crew did at least of their own vessel, so much so they didn’t avoid the collision...
..Actually its the way to visually determine if your vessel is directly heading for a collision with another.
Constant bearing, decreasing range (CBDR) is a term in navigation which means that some object, usually another ship viewed from the deck or bridge of one’s own ship, is getting closer but maintaining the same relative bearing, which means it stays in the same spot relative to an object or a place on your field of vision as you move. If this continues, the objects will collide.
Ha! Now you have admitted it! There was collusion going on! No takebacks!
Kidding of course - I agree with you.
“Even a fool knows this DDG saw the freighter coming and was capable of avoiding her.”
Is absolutely correct.
As a former lead navigator, QM2, on a WWII destroyer, USS Ault, DD698, I agree. There is no way this could happen except by a complete screw-up by the Fitzgerald crew on watch at the time.
He was the XO of the Fitzgerald from November of 2015 until he became Captain a month or so ago.
As XO he should have known the crew and their capabilities better than anyone else.
It isn’t as if this guy just popped into existence a month or so ago.
So much for that theory...
Auto correct is my worst enema.
The Captain, the XO, OOD, JOOD, and CIC watch officers are facing serious career and legal consequences. There may be other enlisted supervisors that may be involved.
Yes. There are human beings on the bridge with binoculars, radar scopes, and two sailors whose only duty is to look out for anything that may come close to the ship. Our ships do not sail around on iron mike with the watch officers sitting in the wardroom watching the movie. At least they did not do that in the Navy I sailed with.
That is a question that was asked the sailors on the Frank Evans, Belknap, and Porter. Errors in judgment, actions taken based on the wrong information, lax attitude, many reasons, none good, for this to happen. People make mistake, and there can be severe consequences for those mistakes.
yeah, right...
Thanks. I could not imagine that human eyes had been dispensed with — neither technology nor individuals can be relied upon 100%, and there always has to be redundancy. The Fitzgerald collision occurred close to the Japanese coast, between major ports. I could accept that the commercial freighter was negligently flying blind, but that does not explain how a USN warship could fail to notice a container ship on course to t-bone them. Truth is in short supply.
What went wrong on the Fitzgerald will take time to sort out. Little will be revealed until the investigation is complete. All we will be able to do is speculate as to the actions on her bridge that led to the collision.
If they did not detect a freighter coming towards them, then everyone on duty on that bridge should be cashiered out of the Navy. And the Captain too, for allowing incompetents to conn his ship,
Let’s see. It is Large, got red and green lights. It is on the ocean and moving. I wonder what it is??
"It's nuthin', and don't bogart that joint . . . "
How about the destroyer computers were hacked into and sabotaged? Could be treason or maybe an entity like China was able to hack in remotely? Maybe a flash drive with malicious code was inserted?
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