With all our modern technology, we can’t tell if a ship is dragging it’s anchor?
Yes, we can, but the shipowner is denying it. Of course.
Who you gonna believe? Me, or my lyin’ transponder.
Even without deliberate action to conceal or deceive, modern electronics (and its software) are quirky things.
The saddest incident of this I can think of is an incident from early OEF where a SOF team air controller had to execute a battery change in the middle of running a strike mission. During the reboot, the target designation (software) reset the mission aim point to the default - which was observer’s own location. The controller didn’t catch the reset and, for that oops!, gallant men got to be dead.
Turning back to the present incident, the electronics will get sorted out by the IT forensic specialists.
However, the article also says there’s a considerable length of pipeline on the bottom “bent like a bow string.” If the ship snagged the pipeline with its anchor, there maybe some scrapping/scouring damage evident (and possibly even paint residue) on both the anchor and the damaged section of the pipeline. Easy enough to check. The ship has moved up the coast to Oakland. That’s fairly accessible and the pipeline isn’t going anywhere either.
“With all our modern technology, we can’t tell if a ship is dragging it’s anchor?”
Sooner or later a device or diver will go down an look at the pipe. Should be easy to tell if it was dragged.