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.
LOL, I don’t count that as the same, because they were operating in a unit with each other with established lines of communication, under rigid protocols (not followed) and there was not hostile intent (unless you count the inherent hostility of the brown shoe navy vs black shoe navy...)
I like the attempt though...you thought you would hoist me on my own petard! (I admit it would have been good theater!)
When Trump cancelled the Paris Climate Accord, the oceans suddenly warmed up significantly... which caused a big CIV (Climate Induced Vortex) which caused both ships to lose control and run into each other.
So... liberals warned us that chaos would ensue if Trump cancelled the climate agreement, and this is the predictable result!
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)
Had a friend and classmate from my hometown (one of them, anyway) in north Alabama who died when the Evans was hit.
The Fitz is a US Navy warship. It should be hardened against EMP. Even if a pulse shut down their electronics, they should be able to steer manually, positioning the rudder using local methods and relaying the orders using sound-powered phones, which are immune to EMP. The engines should not have been affected no matter what. As a former submarine officer, I don't believe this explanation, even though surface ships and subs have some major differences.
Of course it’s not exactly the same, but I find it similar in enough ways to be comparable.
Why, for instance, since they had communications and protocols to prevent this in the first place, did it happen ?
Makes it hard to explain why the Navy (or I should say the media reporting that the Nevy ) kept insisting the accident happened at 2:30am instead of 1:30am.
The thing that the photos make me wonder about is whether the Fitz was under way or stationary, and I read early on that it wasn’t under way.
And looking at the photos of the damage to the Fitz, it sure looks like there was a single impact point with none of the scraping/tearing/ripping that I would expect if both the Crystal and the Fitz were under way at the time of impact.
Not at all. If that accident was caused by ignoring protocols, could it not have been the same with this incident ?
In both incidents, it seems the unlikely/improbable did happen.
The OOD is in deep trouble, along with the Captain. As for the QMOW, helm, and lookouts, I don't see any of the enlisted facing much risk. If a lookout reported the incoming ship and then pointed out again that it was getting close (even without saying constant-bearing-decreasing-range), he's off the hook. If the helm put the rudder where it was ordered, I don't see how any blame attaches to him. If he confused left with right, then he's to blame (but so is the OOD for getting close enough that such an error would matter). If the QMOW logged things correctly, he did his job.
I don’t think there is anything at all wrong with the Navy’s analytical skills.
I think the issue is that when it is going to reflect poorly on the Naval Service, they try to alter the findings to make it less damning to the Navy, and more damning to the individual.
Oddly enough, I cannot remember ever reading a case where a captain or crew did any incarceration at Portsmouth Naval Prison (or wherever they send them now)
Any other Freepers know of a case? Even when there is loss of life, I can’t recall an instance of jail time.
Busted in rank and bounced from the service...yes.
As a former Navy officer, I consider that a very good outcome. It cost the ship a lot of time, but they (presumably) got rid of a dangerously terrible captain with no loss of life.
I am at the point of starting to enjoy the goofy ideas some come up with.
I really liked the character that interpreted the AIS track as proof the ACX was actively hunting the destroyer down.
We know the ACX Crystal was doing 19 knots. It is extremely unlikely the Fitzgerald was stationary...the collision would have been catastrophic.
See the damage on the hawsepipe. I think that could only happen if the Fitzgerald was overtaking the ACX Crystal.
I admit that first track really confused me, but once the time was corrected, it made sense to me.
Well, we do have entertainment value, that is for sure!
It is somewhat dated, but the concepts are largely the same, since they have been written in blood over the years.
Sad. So many young men, just cut down in one fell swoop. It is a lot of responsibility for a young OOD, and nearly all of them take it very seriously...for good reason.
I suspect the Fitz lost radio transmission capability in the collision and did not restore that capability for an hour. Fighting the flooding is more urgent than rigging electronics and would have had the best people involved, including most of their senior personnel. The Fitz would then have reported the collision at 02:30. The Navy PAO would have said they received a report at 02:30, which the media would immediately have misreported.
It did. One thing I hate about watching the reconstruction is that nobody on that destroyer knew their life was going to change (or end) until the last few seconds, when all they could do was...watch.
As I said before on this, nobody ever walks out the front door of their house and says “Well, I’m gonna get T-boned by a semi today, this is the last time I’ll walk out this door.”
It’s always a surprise, especially when you ignore the clues, like the Far Side cartoon where the airline pilots see a mountain goat as they are flying, and one of them says “Hey...what’s a mountain goat doing up here in the clouds?”
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