Very similar account to what was posted last night:
Unconfirmed, from Reddit:
“I actually just got word from another shipmate that was on board the USS Fitzgerald as well. He said that the cargo ship did not appear on the radar and the lights were dim. They tried to turn, but by then it was too late. When they hit, the berthing rooms started to flood. They sealed off all the berthing rooms, essentially trapping the sailors because they thought no one was in any of the rooms to avoid sinking the ship.”
First reports are always wrong.
The military doesn’t divulge information easily, especially when it might identify security weaknesses.
The media probably doesn’t know any more about merchant ships than they do about naval matters.
I can’t figure out that US Navy radar technology wouldn’t have been tracking this massive container ship and sounded some alarm.
My first thoughts were that this was no "accident".
Upon hearing about planes hitting the World Trade Center on 9/11, I recall saying it had to be purposeful since it was a clear day and the WTC was the biggest thing for 1000 miles. It just couldn’t be a mistake.
I thought the same thing here. How do two ships collide in open water except on purpose?
I’ll go with go with Capt. Johnny Walker was at the ship’s helm.
9/11 would have been reported as an acccident if only one plane had been involved.
Wow.
Not dismissing the possibility of an intentional attack, but if the merchant ship was doing something illegal, say receiving, offloading, dumping an illicit cargo, wouldn’t that explain the transponder being off? And how long was the transponder off? The entire voyage, certain part, during the squirrelly turns the vessel made?
Why no info on who/what owns/operates the merchant ship..?
And why couldn’t/didn’t the Fitz get out of the way?
It would seem to me that had the ACX Crystal wanted to deliberately ram the Fitzgerald, the container ship would have done much more damage than it actually did.
Enemy islamism until demonstrated otherwise.
It is apparent from the damage photos that the collision was at an oblique angle, and both ships were on similar heading at the time of collision, sort of like a collision on a highway when making a lane change. Not like a head on or t-bone collision.
I suspect negligence on the bridge of the Fitzgerald because there was apparently no collision horn sounded. It should have been sounded minutes before the collision and at a minimum the captain should have been on the bridge. I take negligence (or far less likely, malice) on the part of the commercial vessel for granted.
There has to be more to this story.
I strongly question that this “mother” received email from her son. Any time there is an incident like this, the ship goes into what they call “River City” and all email/internet access is immediately secured to all but only the highest-ranking sailors (generally the “Triad” of CO, XO and CMC).
I have lots of problems with this account. Yes, civilian ship radars work with transponders. They also register objects without transponders.
A MILITARY ship's radar necessarily works in an environment where hostile ships do not helpfully have transponders on. As a matter of fact, I would HOPE that the ship's sensor software would flag a ship with transponder off as "POTENTIAL HOSTILE"!
Must be conspiracy day. My first thought after the initial reporting: How are our ships supposed to defend against modern warships if a freighter can just accidentally torpedo a destroyer?
totaally fishy.
That destroyer will have equipment to detect if you tossed a Popsicle stick in the water in front of it.
Open ocean, not some crowded port or crappy weather.
I did see The USS Eisenhower, returning to Norfolk, on 29 August 1988, she collided with an anchored Spanish coal ship while entering the harbor to dock at Norfolk Naval Station when wind and currents pushed the carrier off course, although damage was minor to both ships.
There are pictures in other threads showing the cargo ships track. How would that track be available if the transponder was off?