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 ...
First there would be in the Army what is called an Article 32 investigation, a very senior officer and likely former ship captain appointed to investigate. That report would likely go to the PAC COM Commander for his action, appointing a courts martial or whatever his options are. You are right, more than one person is going to be deeply involved here.
There will be multiple investigations by USN, USCG, Japanese CG etc, so it will all be honest and in the open.
Looks very bad for the OOD on the bridge of the Fitz.
Looks like Crystal, from post 165, was trying to come right to avoid hitting the idiots on the DDG. Crystal couldn’t have been steaming a straighter course. Looks like it took 50 minutes for Crystal to do her own damage report and figure out what is what, then arrived back at the DDG.
How embarrassing for the DDG - the merch came back to the USN ship. “You guys ok? Drive boats much?”
Has the Navy changed their report of the timeline?
They cannot avoid a torpedo at all, ever. the new torpedo’s go deep then come up and strike the keel of the ship breaking it in half, sinks in minutes.
Perhaps they were trying to save the ship from you know SINKING
Not all would be asleep, some would be on watch..
I think it was a Muslim driving the other ship....
It's more likely the Fitzgerald bridge crew staged the collision that way in an attempt to murder the CO
Really! throwing him overboard was far too complex so they staged this collision to almost kill him?
That would have been EVEN more likely. (We are with very low probabilites here)
Same reasoning: a tow truck “should not be able” to collide with a state trooper’s high performance patrol car.
But if the tow truck driver crosses the double yellow line at the last second....collision.
Even though “the state trooper’s patrol car could EASILY avoid and intentional ramming by a tow truck on the highway. Easily.”
I'll preface by saying I know nothing about Navy protocol, but I would have thought that there would be a standing rule that no other non US Navy vessel be allowed to come within say 500 yards of a ship. PERIOD. If a ship get any closer defensive measures are immediately carried out. This could include changing course and going full speed.
Very possible it was intentional on the cargo ships part, but no way on earth they should have been able to execute. Someone fouled up. Big time.
Please see 165.
There are three sides to a coin, and you have addressed one of the possiblities in this event.
Any inoperability, of course, would have been the result of either hostile or non-hostile action. Given the redundancy of the DDG's assets and its superb ability to maneuver if only "by hand", one could conclude it was other than non-hostile action.
Perhaps the Board of Inquiry could request that James Kallstrom offer some insights.
Yeah, a massive build up of static electricity was released resulting in engine failure.
The actual collision was apparently at position 1, while the ship was on autopilot. The immediate maneuvers after that are the autopilot reacting to the collision and then getting back on it’s assigned course. The u-turn is when the crew went back to see what they had hit.
The Fitz apparently never detected the container ship at all until the collision, which is mind-boggling.
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