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 ...
The cruiser Lake Champlain was not able to avoid a 65 foot Korean fishing vessel in may...
the comm room was severely compromised by crushing, as was the skipper’s quarters.
First of all it was reported that the area was very crowded with ships and that the ACX Crystal, which was 3 times the size of the Fitzgerald made a sudden U-Turn, so why should it not be possible?
“That tangled reasoning might have led to the collision, but then for the freighter to leave the scene after ?”
Ok, how’s this for tangled reasoning. What if the destroyer was shadowing the container ship (suspected them of carrying bad stuff), got too close and the container ship managed some sort of a “crazy Ivan” style maneuver and hit them?
Or maybe whatever string of miscommunication and technical difficulties caused the ship to hit and the weird things the container ship did after are due to them wanting to dispose of things they didn’t want the Japanese coast guard to see.
Since the plot of the Fitz is not known, and is labeled “speculation” on that map, we don’t know where the collision occurred.
The big U-turn by the ACX Crystal could just as well be to return to see what happened, whereupon it was told no help was needed.
No "alarm systems" per se; the ship had ample sensors to detect surface traffic. The "alarms" were watchstanders on the bridge, lookout stations, and in the Combat Information Center. There had to be a minimum of dozen people--perhaps as high as two dozen--that should've seen the presence of the ACX Crystal.
Welcome aboard the FR But a non sequitur What is the F in JFK's name ? It is a family name: FitzgeraldInteresting
Except that a ship of that size really can’t make a sudden U-turn at all. The plot is a bit misleading in that respect.
found this, might be interesting:
Eric Megar
CEO, Maerospace Corp.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/assessing-uss-fitzgerald-collision-acx-crystal-eric-meger
Yes but when was it erratic? Before or after the collision?
If before why couldn’t a US Naval destroyer avoid a larger ship moving at 18 knots?
Yes but when was it erratic? Before or after the collision?
If before why couldn’t a US Naval destroyer avoid a larger ship moving at 18 knots?
It would only be ironic if there was some connection.
There does not appear to be any.
“Yes but when was it erratic? Before or after the collision?
If before why couldn’t a US Naval destroyer avoid a larger ship moving at 18 knots?”
People are totally overlooking the fact that the position/course of the Fitz on that map is speculation.
The map does not show where the collision occurred. Whoever made the map just guessed.
Namesake: William Charles Fitzgerald
We would have noticed a large ship acting erratically that close to us, and would certainly have called the captain to the bridge well before the collision.
Even at 500 yards it would have been simple for the DDG to put the helm over to starboard and pass behind the freighter, and freighters don’t get within 500 yards of a Navy ship without somebody noticing.
I’ve seen the freighter’s track; I’d like to see the DDG’s.
Hi Travis, looking at the course, I am wondering if the crystal was in reverse from point 3 to point 4. No need for a crazy ivan.
Plus it made a sudden U-turn and that was when it hit the Fitzgerald.
Plus it made a sudden U-turn and that was when it hit the Fitzgerald.
Says who?
The one difference, I would suggest, is that a submarine officer trusts no surface ship to behave rationally and you try to navigate so that no one is in a position to ram you and do harm if they tried. In part defensive driving is the order of the day on sub because with so little above the waterline other ships have a hard time figuring out your course (the pointy end is aft, for instance).
Now an advantage that a sub has on the surface is that it has a huge rudder and is therefore extremely maneuverable compared to other ships of its size.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.