[Pontiac]

This is a bit misleading. Sanchez (the Commanding Officer) ordered sailors to change the configuration of the Ships Control Console, splitting steering and throttle control systems. In the middle of one of the worlds busiest, most congested waterways. Short of an emergency, you NEVER do this under such conditions.

And yet that is exactly what the admiral that investigated the accident ordered for all of the destroyers with this control system to do.

The new guidelines warned that IBNS instructions available on the bridge of the McCain and dozens of other destroyers did not include clear procedures for transferring steering and thrust.

And they required every destroyer captain to do exactly what Sanchez had done: Split the helm whenever using the IBNS, directing one sailor to steer and a second to control speed, in order to “maximize confidence” in the modernized system.

I believe that in the past these controls were normally separate and controlled by different individuals namely the Helmsman and the Throttleman.

[ETCM]

You misunderstand what I wrote. What you don’t do is “change the configuration of the SCC” while you are in a restricted maneuvering condition or situation. You configure the ship for such a transit BEFORE you begin, not when a failure could cause collision, injury and death, as happened in this case. Is that more clear?