Posted on 06/25/2017 7:21:19 PM PDT by TXnMA
By: Sam LaGrone
The crew of the guided-missile destroyer that was struck by a merchant ship on Friday off the coast of Japan fought to save the ship for an hour before the first calls went out for help, Japanese investigators now believe.
According to the current operational theory of Japanese investigators, the deadly collision between USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and the Philippine-flagged merchant ship ACX Crystal knocked out the destroyer’s communications for an hour, while the four-times-larger merchant ship was unaware of what it hit until it doubled back and found the damaged warship, two sources familiar with the ongoing Japanese investigation told USNI News on Wednesday.
Investigators now think Crystal was transiting to Tokyo on autopilot with an inattentive or asleep crew when the merchant vessel struck a glancing blow on the destroyer’s starboard side at about 1:30 AM local time on Friday. When the crew of Crystal realized they had hit something, the ship performed a U-turn in the shipping lane and sped back to the initial site of the collision at 18 knots, discovered Fitzgerald, and radioed a distress call to authorities at about 2:30 AM. U.S. Navy officials initially said the collision occurred at around the time of the distress call at 2:30 AM.
Meanwhile, when Crystal’s port bow hit Fitzgerald, the warship was performing a normal transit off the coast of Japan, USNI News understands. Above the waterline, the flared bow of Crystal caved in several spaces in the superstructure, including the stateroom of commanding officer Cmdr. Bryce Benson.
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,” a sailor familiar with the damage to the ship told USNI News. “He’s lucky to be alive.”
Fitzgerald sailors had to bend back the door of the stateroom to pluck Benson from the side of the ship and bring him inside. He and two other sailors were later evacuated from the ship via a Japanese helicopter to a Navy hospital at Yokosuka.
Pictures of Benson’s stateroom from the door show the steel bent back to reveal open air, and a photo of the ship’s exterior pier-side shows almost the entire stateroom was crushed.
Meanwhile, below decks, the glancing blow of Crystal’s bulbous bow had ripped a 10-feet-by-10-feet to 14-feet-by-14-feet hole below the waterline of the ship, flooding a machinery space the berthing area that was home to about half of the crew, the sailor said.
Over the weekend, U.S. 7th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin confirmed the spaces that were affected by the collision.
“Three compartments were severely damaged,” Aucoin said at the Saturday press conference. “One machinery room and two berthing areas — berthing areas for 116 of the crew.”
The seven sailors who died aboard were sealed in the berthing area behind a watertight door as the ship’s company fought to keep the ship afloat, according to a description of events the Navy told the family of Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm Jr., according to The Associated Press. It’s yet unclear if the ship’s watch had time to sound the collision alarm or call general quarters before Crystal hit the destroyer.
In addition to the damage to the spaces, the collision knocked out Fitzgerald’s communications for the better part of an hour. At about the same time the crew was able to reactivate their backup Iridium satellite communications to radio for help, Crystal arrived on the scene and called in its own distress call, the sailor told USNI News.
investigators are being tight-lipped about details of the investigation, even inside the service. However, information USNI News learned from the Japan Coast Guard investigation indicates Fitzgerald was operating normally when the collision occurred, raising questions more questions regarding why Benson wasn’t on the bridge when a contact was so close to the destroyer.
On Monday, U.S 7th Fleet began a flag officer-led Judge Advocate General Manual (JAGMAN) investigation to determine the facts of the collision, as well as a separate U.S. Navy safety investigation. The U.S. Coast Guard will take lead in a maritime casualty investigation.
As for the ship, five days after collision active damage control efforts are ongoing to prevent further damage to the hull. The force of Crystal’s impact combined with the flood not only dented but twisted the ship’s hull. Crews are continuing to pump water in and out of the ship to keep Fitzgerald stable.
Naval Sea Systems Command is now assessing if the ship can be repaired in Japan or would have to be transported to the U.S. for repairs.
While investigation and repairs are ongoing, the ship’s crew has been given time away from the ship in an attempt to recover from the collision. The burden of ships’ watches is being shared by other crews on the Yokosuka waterfront, Navy officials told USNI News on Wednesday. Both Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Steve Giordano both visited Yokosuka to speak with Fitzgerald sailors and their families.
TE. I detest McLame with every fiber of my being and for many years believed he was responsible for the disaster on the Forrestal. After I reviewed all the pertinent data(at the request of a fellow FReeper) I could find I had to reverse my position. That in no way lets him off with me. I hate him for many reasons, the biggest one is in regard to how he treats POW/MIA families.
FWIW.
Still don’t understand how this destroyer didn’t see the Crystal.
The Navy has the CIC and Deck Logs of the ship and all of the positioning information for that night. They are interviewing every officer and sailor that was on watch that night plus the CO and XO. None of the facts, and conclusions as to the Fitzgerald’s movements will be released until the investigation is complete. We may have to wait several months before the Navy to complete its investigation and release the report. Until then we can only speculate what happened on the Fitzgerald bridge that night.
I seriously doubt they were running without navigational radar, that would be a violation of IMO protocols.
Even cheap maritime navigational radar sets have an interference reject mode that filters out most interference from other radar transmitters. Interference reject is sometimes useful in harbor when dozens of confusing strobes might flood the screen. With interference reject off, the operator will see a line on the screen indicating the bearing to the transmitter, usually another navigational radar, but no information about range. Still good to know.
Everything so far seems to indicate extreme negligence and dereliction on the part of both crews, but far more serious on the part of the Naval vessel, which had far more personnel and resources.
One “hearty warrior” trying to figure out which page goes after which, the other playing with her cell phone ...
Not enough men join the Navy, so more ‘women’ are recruited. Fire fighting bodies, or in this case de-watering bodies ...
Why the different badges on their jackets and what do they mean?
What does the plaque have to do with anything?
I am with you on that. I actually served under McCain in his last command (training squadron) and it took me a while to come around on him, but come around I have.
The gal on the left’s badge denotes that she is qualified as a Surface Warfare Officer. It also has her name and rank on it. The one on the right’s badge is the official seal of the USS Fitzgerald. Sailors will often wear the seal of their ship on ball caps, and work jackets. It is not a uniform requirement, but it allowed.
My guess is a radar malfunction or it wasn't operating in the correct mode. Supposedly it was a clear night, but maybe there was some fog in the area so lookouts never got a visual on the ASX Cyrstal
It is a traditional kind of thing on some ships...I think some people bring the plaque up to poke the Navy in the eye...to be fair, with each passing day, it looks more and more like an eye-poke is going to be deserved.
One thing it does do though, is help identify that it was indeed the Captain’s cabin, so it is positive identification in a heap of twisted metal.
When your ship is in danger of sinking, one of the last things on your mind is holding flight quarters to start up a helo and use its radios, which would have taken too long anyway.
Were they relying solely on the technology, or did they have human lookouts posted as well?
It could be a lesson not to rely too much on gadgets.
I must admit, that has me very concerned. These are excellent ships, best of that class the Navy has had (for the time it operates in) probably since WWII era.
But this is disturbing.
I will say, though, I am willing to grant some leeway and wait until I hear the whole story on communications and the delay.
It is one of the worst times for human reactions to anything (0000-0400) and while most of the crew was asleep, there were most certainly engineering watches, bridge watches, lookout watches and so on, but...I can imagine waking from sleep with a collision like that, being tossed from your rack onto the deck, screeching of metal, screaming and yelling, no lights except battle lanterns, and hearing the screams and shouts of “We’re flooding! or even worse “We’re sinking!” coupled with water rising fast right where you are.
On the bridge, the OOD was likely in shock and non-functional. Perhaps the XO or others couldn’t get to the bridge due to damage, or on the way, officers were hijacked to help save the captain or stop the flooding, etc. And I don’t see any evidence of fire damage, but...add fire and smoke to that, and I can imagine it is total chaos.
And for communication, perhaps things are offline...the OOD doesn’t know the methods for backup communications that well, and none of the sailors do...it ends up taking a while for someone to find a sat phone. You would think they have a special place for those kinds of things and have them worked into their damage control drills, but I admit I wouldn’t know that...I am an airedale.
But I can see some junior officer making his way to the bridge and getting people working on getting the comms back online, and they say it will take 10 minutes, so he says “Okay, let me know when we can transmit...” and that ten min. turns into twenty before he thinks to ask if they are ready yet, and when the answer is no, he tasks some random enlisted person to look for the sat phone after it is determined they cannot get comm back on the line, but...that enlisted person may have no idea, they have to ask someone else who has no idea...I can just see the whole thing going down. Eventually, the XO makes it to the bridge, and now a half hour or more has gone by. Then, maybe the batteries on the sat phone are not charged for some reason...and so on. I agree that the priority is to save the vessel, and from what I am guessing, the damage below the waterline is going to be significant. I think when we see it, we may well be amazed the vessel didn’t sink, but...that is just speculation on my part.
Granted, people train for this. But as any combat veteran will tell you, training for it and being in it for the first time are two separate things.
I will not cut them any slack for the collision itself, this stinks to high heaven of human error. But I will withhold judgement on their performance in damage control and to a lesser degree comms until we hear more.
And I guarantee you: The navy is going to examine this communication delay very closely. I expect changes from this, both from an infrastructure level on the ship next time they are in the yards, and big changes in training and drills to incorporate and concentrate on these things to a greater degree. (I am certain they already address them in training and drills, but they are going to be more pronounced.)
If that is the case (I don't know what it is like now) then someone should swing. I would be appalled to learn they dispensed with most of the traditional watches, maybe keeping one aft and one forward for a total of two instead of four or more!) And what if one of those two fell asleep...especially the one on the bow????? This is not unheard of. When I was on the USS JFK back in the Seventies, there was a watch on the port quarter one night around 0200-0300, and he fell asleep on watch. (We all know what happens to people who are caught sleeping on watch, I doubt that has changed.) Anyway, a couple of his buddies went down to say hello to him, and saw he was asleep, sound powered phones on, slumped in his chair. One of his buddies silently crawled over, and tied the shoelaces to his boondockers together. He retreated to the hatch with his giggling buddies and said "Man Overboard! Man Overboard!" It had the desired effect, the sleeping sailor leaped to his feet and promptly fell flat on his face, to their hilarity. Unfortunately someone on a catwalk above them raised the alarm, resulting in the ship (and by necessity the entire carrier battle group as it was) coming awake, each ship running its own "Man Overboard", with probably 8,000+ men running up and down ladders, etc. I heard they court marshaled those guys. It is kind of funny to tell in retrospect, but at the time...hoo boy.
We've got some serious design flaws in our warships if this is the case...
Thanks. I have read through the 175 comments posted at USNI and find most of the comments were not very analytical.
That being said here is one comment about the traffic just prior to the collision.
“Note WAN HAI 266 was to the port side of USS Fitzgerald. Sailing parallel to ACX Crystal with USS Fitzgerald sandwiched.
When ACX Crystal A/C to 070 then minutes later WAN HAI also A/C to 070.
It seems that USS Fitzgerald does NOT change course and stays on track.....”
From my cursory review of the AIS Marine data it appears the course changes made by the ACX Crystal is the typical way a ship approaches Yokohama. The Fitzgerald has been stationed at Yokosuka for 13 years. All aspects of the marine traffic in and out of the area would be very familiar to the crew.
The question of why a dozen Navy crew with 24 eyes did not see the ACX Crystal on radar or visually remains unanswered.
Thanks. I have read through the 175 comments posted at USNI and find most of the comments were not very analytical.
That being said here is one comment about the traffic just prior to the collision.
“Note WAN HAI 266 was to the port side of USS Fitzgerald. Sailing parallel to ACX Crystal with USS Fitzgerald sandwiched.
When ACX Crystal A/C to 070 then minutes later WAN HAI also A/C to 070.
It seems that USS Fitzgerald does NOT change course and stays on track.....”
From my cursory review of the AIS Marine data it appears the course changes made by the ACX Crystal is the typical way a ship approaches Yokohama. The Fitzgerald has been stationed at Yokosuka for 13 years. All aspects of the marine traffic in and out of the area would be very familiar to the crew.
The question of why a dozen Navy crew with 24 eyes did not see the ACX Crystal on radar or visually remains unanswered.
In the military there is a term for that possibility. It is called “the chain of command”. The ship was never without a “captain”.
In an emergency EVERYONE knows their jobs. These types of events are anticipated and trained for. Nobody says “where do they keep the pumps” or “what do I do?”
All the smears against our brave sailors on this forum are disgusting and unwarranted.
In the first detailed account from one of those directly involved, the cargo ship's captain said the ACX Crystal had signalled with flashing lights after the Fitzgerald "suddenly" steamed on to a course to cross its path.
The container ship steered hard to starboard (right) to avoid the warship, but hit the Fitzgerald 10 minutes later at 1:30 a.m., according to a copy of Captain Ronald Advincula's report to Japanese ship owner Dainichi Investment Corporation that was seen by Reuters.
The U.S. Navy declined to comment and Reuters was not able to independently verify the account.
Take it at face value. Until we get confirmation, I'll hold off on further speculation.
“.....navigated the damaged ship back into the busy port with only a magnetic compass and backup equipment.”
EMP type device looks more and more likely.
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