USS Frank Evans and HMAS Melbourne.
The moments leading up to the crash of the USS Frank E. Evans and the HMAS Melbourne.
Posted on 06/26/2017 5:56:24 AM PDT by AU72
TOKYO, June 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. warship struck by a container vessel in Japanese waters failed to respond to warning signals or take evasive action before a collision that killed seven of its crew, according to a report of the incident by the Philippine cargo ship's captain.
Multiple U.S. and Japanese investigations are under way into how the guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald and the much larger ACX Crystal container ship collided in clear weather south of Tokyo Bay in the early hours of June 17
Those who died were in their berthing compartments, while the Fitzgerald's commander was injured in his cabin, suggesting that no alarm warning of an imminent collision was sounded.
I'm always surprised when people don't see this. If my wife is looking for her car keys, she will look in her purse, on the kitchen counter and in her coat pocket. Then she goes back to her purse, back to the kitchen, and back to her coat. Then back to the purse -- because those are the areas that "make sense".
Meanwhile, I check the bathrooms, the dining room, the porch, and the garage. She thinks I'm crazy -- "Because I wouldn't leave my keys in those places!"
I find her keys quite often. Because if they were in her purse, she wouldn't be asking me to look. If she asks for my help, then the keys are not in the obvious places and are, by definition, in a place that makes no sense.
From everything I can see about the collision, a simple maneuver would have avoided all of this - a 90-120 degree turn to port- approximately perpendicular to the merchant’s track - while the vessels were 4,000 down to maybe 2,000 yards apart, to rapidly open the distance from the merchant’s track, and then continue a 360 degree turn to port back to base course, passing clear astern of the freighter.
That would have done it. Or reducing speed to allow the container ship to pass. Or better yet, not coming within a mile of a 30,000 ton container ship in the first place. Certainly the radar image of something as large as a container ship should be huge.
As poster UCANSEE2 correctly points out, you cannot summarily throw a theory out the window without considering it, when trying to narrow things down.
However, you have to begin separating the wheat from the chaff at some point.
If someone said “Perhaps a small asteroid hit the Fitzgerald knocking out all communications and steering” you might (if being charitable) say “Okay. On what do you base that? Sure, it is possible.” before saying “No. I don’t think so. That is pretty low probablity. Let’s put that one in the “parking lot” and we can come back to it if nothing pans out.”
If you hear hooves in the Arizona desert, you think horses, not zebras. If you think zebras, people will treat you as not serious, and you will be discounted.
Likewise, until someone gives me proof there is supersecret equipment that can selectively render propulsion, steering, and communication equipment on a US warship that equipment designed and tested in such a way to be resistant to that, only a few miles from a civilian ship that somehow is not affected by it, and this emission or disabling thing is not detected by American or Japanese (or civilian) assets in the area, and it is coordinated with the crew of a civilian vessel whose schedule is likely very constrained (very rigid when it leaves port and arrives in the next, due to scheduling of shore facilities, dock space, people to prepare the destination, traffic patterns, pilots who have to board, etc) so that they can somehow steer their civilian vessel into a very maneuverable warship traveling at 20 knots or better...I’m not entertaining it seriously in any way, shape, or form.
US Navy Vessels don’t block the path of a vessel that refuses to stop (especially when they displace 30,000 tons and you are a third of that) they fire a shot across the bow, or if you are the North Koreans in 1968 trying to get the USS Pueblo to stop, you fire into her.
“I wa in aviation, and that was years ago, so I have no idea what the navigation or warning systems are like nowadays.”
Some things are the same. Master Caution is the same as always. The other annunciators look different than they did but what is the same is what you explained so well, hit the big button and go find what caused it.
I don’t believe ships have the same sort of system, but I do aviation, not ships.
Returning to this immediate situation, I think it would be a very good idea for that OOD to get himself or herself an excellent criminal lawyer because the failure to maintain a proper lookout and take effective evasive action could easily be deemed reckless and lead to a conviction for the naval equivalent of involuntary manslaughter, something that would very likely happen to a civilian skipper in a similar situation.
As I’ve said before, there is a missing component to this incident that will explain what happened. I think we are all curious what it is, but I think the Navy is right to keep it in confidentiality until the investigation is complete, at a minimum.
What was the crew preoccupied with?
It reminds me somewhat of Eastern Airlines flight 401. The crew became preoccupied with a burned out landing gear indicator light. So much so that they even failed to hear the low altitude warning C-chord chime. Consequently, the aircraft crashed into the Florida Everglades.
Hard as I try to come up with some theory, I can’t. So many crew members would have to be preoccupied, not just those in the bridge. Could all on duty that evening be so preoccupied with other stuff.
This is a subject near and dear to me, and I have been interested in it since I was a kid in Subic Bay and saw the stern of the USS Frank Evans after they towed it in (cut in half by the HMAS Melbourne in 1969 with the loss of 74 men on the destroyer)
Right now, the public is only getting its information from the media, which doesn't know diddly-squat about anything military. We Freepers want to know what is going on, so this is how we approach it. I learn new things every day on here...I would say more than I learn from the media, but I stopped listening, watching, and reading them around 20 years ago, so that I learn more here is a given.
As I suggested, in the open ocean there is no excuse for letting anything within 2 miles of you.
I take it for granted that the Captain and the OOD are at fault - both by definition and in fact. I'm not sure what would be required to hold the Boatswains Mate of the watch and other enlisted watch standers responsible.
“”We Freepers want to know what is going on, so this is how we approach it. I learn new things every day on here””
It also seems the current and former Navy officials are more interested in providing disinformation. The disinformation from these current and former Navy officials does a disservice to the Navy as it shows the weakness of their analytical skills.
We do seem to agree.
Probably because we only know half the story.
>> Lower-powered/less maneuverable vessel ALWAYS has the right-of-way.
Well, that vessel was quite agile in its route back to the Fitzgerald.
At least on domestic flights an airliner’s cockpit crew consists only of a pilot and copilot. OTOH a 9000 ton destroyer has a far larger number of people on the bridge, at least two of whom are full time lookouts with binoculars, binoculars that work very well at night and are there for spotting oncoming ships to avoid collisions. That makes this an even nastier case.
USS Frank Evans and HMAS Melbourne.
The moments leading up to the crash of the USS Frank E. Evans and the HMAS Melbourne.
I know people connected to the Fitz, but I have not even heard hints at what happened. I assume an admiral ordered no leaks, not because there is anything worse involved than the obvious but to make sure the first version of events that gets out is correct. I assume, despite this statement, that the container ship had no one awake on the bridge. I also assume the Fitz did several monumentally stupid things (no, no one I know has commented either way on the Captain or any other officer). I expect the details to come out once the formal investigation is complete.
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