EXCLUSIVE-U.S. warship stayed on deadly collision course despite warning-container ship captain

Reuters ^ | June 26, 2017 | Tim Kelly

[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.

[rlmorel]

I agree.

[rlmorel]

I know this is hard to believe, but..something happened. And there is a lot we don't know, but...poor communication is not a new thing.

I posted a link yesterday about the USS Missouri grounding back in the Fifties.

On that bridge, the Captain had several people who were familiar with the area telling him he was going on the wrong side of a channel marker. When an enlisted man told him the second time, the Captain ignored him. When he said it the third time, the Captain chewed him a new one.

At the trial, when they asked him why he didn't persist, the sailor said something like "I tried and he chewed me out, so I just shut my mouth."

[Vermont Lt]

The bitchin Betty is the automated system on aircraft.

[doorgunner69]

To my knowledge, this doesn't exist on Navy ships (probably not many others, either.)

On the contrary, such a thing is readily available on boats and ships if the owner wants it. If you can receive AIS signals from other vessels, many chartplotters such as the one I have can be programmed to alarm at a set distance. The manual calls it:
AIS Alarm: Sets the collision alarm.

I do not have AIS reception, so do not use it obviously. No need when 99% of the other boats in the area do not transmit AIS.

[TXnMA]

Thanks again! I've been pushing my graphics skills to new levels -- trying to make that "before" view a translucent overlay over the damage view. So far, not too much luck...

At first glance the images are similar -- but they were taken with different...

• elevations...

• angles... yaw & roll --(including listing)

• distances...

• focal length lenses...

• lighting conditions...

...which all ads up to significant distortions that I haven't yet been able to compensate.

So -- I'm creating a vector copy of major structural elements from your image. Those, I think I can morph to match the view of the damaged version...

I may not come up with anything publishable on FR -- but, I'm sure learning a lot about photographic/perspective distortions!

Now, I'm trying to make a "Before / After" comparison -- with both views aligned on the same page -- with arrows showing major displaced features... Thanks again!!

[dr_lew]

Bah Humbug! You can't blame this on the container ship. Sorry. It was a billiard ball crossing the table. The only change of course is attributed to the Fitzgerald. What were they thinking? That is the question.

Assuming they were not all asleep, it seems to be an egregious miscalculation by the Fitzgerald. That's a "thing", you know, where you are transfixed by the possibilty of collision, and remain commited to your decision.

[petitfour]

https://pilotonline.com/news/military/local/audio-confusion-reigned-before-destroyer-s-collision/article_c7472be8-efcb-5763-93bb-aab66d820175.html

Very similar event from a few years ago. It’s probably already been discussed on here.

[UCANSEE2]

All I can say is WOW !

[PavewayIV]

Everyone is saying not to speculate - to wait for the investigation to find out the 'facts' on the Fitzgerald collision. The audio of the Porter collision should be proof enough for everyone here that we will probably never hear any detail from the Navy regarding this incident except in the most general sense.

The captain of the Porter was relieved of command three weeks after the 2012 collision, but details of the sequence of events leading up to it were never released to the public AFIK. A year after the fact, they released the bridge audio, but only in response to a FOIA request. People were able to piece together what happened from that. The Fitzgerald accident is probably a lot more complex.

Anyone that thinks there will be a quick investigation or ANY disclosure of what happened by the US Navy is dreaming. They will delay and hide everything possible from the public. This seems pretty routine with them in other accidents. I don't doubt they will act internally to discuss the details to prevent this from happening again, but I doubt we'll ever see any uncomfortable details from the Navy.

A FOIA request might produce a few scraps of information a year from now, but I could see them refusing any requests since the accident resulted in the deaths of sailors.

I'm not begrudging the US Navy their secrecy, but I have to shake my head in disbelief when people on social media insist that everyone simply wait for the 'results of the official investigation' that will never be made public. Maybe we'll hear something from the Japanese Coast Guard, but I won't keep my hopes up for that, either.

[Norseman]

>>The Fitzgerald accident is probably a lot more complex.<< (than the Porter accident, that is.)

On another thread, I used the data you provided to illustrate that a scenario similar to the Porter accident might have also occurred here.

In a nutshell, the Fitzgerald might have initially been too close to another containership, the Wan Hai, sailing parallel to the Crystal, and could have been taking steps to get out of its path. That’s essentially what happened to the Porter, where it avoided the first tanker and then was surprised by the existence of the second and collided with it. It looks like that could have happened to the Fitzgerald as well.

Here’s a link to my post on that thread, based on PavewayIV’s comments preceding it and the info he provided. It’s post #104

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3564080/posts?q=1&;page=101

If someone with graphing capability could produce a diagram given the data discussed there, that would be quite helpful, and probably quite illuminating as well, assuming my assessment of the relative positions of the three ships is in the ballpark.

[happytpr]

So far as I can tell, ACX Crystal has a slow-speed diesel turning a fixed-pitch propeller, so no changing direction on the fly. It takes a lot longer than people think to kick in reverse, since that means completely shutting off the engine, waiting for it to finish turning, and blowing compressed air to start it again in reverse. Judging from the track, I doubt they even stopped the engine, let alone reversed it.

[TXnMA]

UCANSEE2, here's one way to use your "Before" photo:

The distortion between images (compare sizes and shapes of the pairs of octagonal phased-array antennas in the two photos...) is so great that I had to use a compromise alignment that the eye will accept. Even so, compared to objects unaffected by the collision (green arrows) -- the collision-damaged components are all swept aftward -- indicating a relatively higher (overtaking) speed by the Fitzgerald at the moment of collision...

If I had aligned the images so that undamaged components were vertically aligned, the aftward dispacement of the damaged components would have been unrealistically exaggerated ("fake news")...

Aside: The dark gray non-skid deck surfaces are useful when comparing images. Note how the little "balcony" deck (overtinted purple) was not only shifted aftward, but was obviously smashed downward.

I'm still trying to sort out how so much obvious -- and violent -- relative vertical collision motion could have occurred...

~~~~~~

Thanks again for the "before" image!

[TXnMA]

Thanks! Unfortunately, that removes one possible contributor to the violent vertical relative motion that occurred. (See my #292 -- just posted....)

Look at the violent "downward-smashing" that occurred on the Fitzgerald. Now, my guess is that the only thing that kept the Fitz from rolling over was its main deck embedded in the stem of the Crystal -- and the restraining presence of the Crystal's overhanging bow...

[alfa6]

BKMK

Thanks

alfa6 ;>}

[Presbyterian Reporter]

Excellent investigatory work. I will recommend FR give you a pay raise.

I have been looking to find measurements of the two ships from the waterline upwards. So far no luck.

I am thinking that Crystal’s anchor, hawsepipe, and the gash in the bow combined to keep the Fitzgerald from rolling over.

It seems obvious that the USS Fitzgerald hit the Crystal’s port side just behind the hawsepipe.

The US Navy intends to not release any investigation until September. Will the Japanese and Philippine authorities agree to withhold their findings until then?

[rlmorel]

This gave me an idea...does anyone know a Freeper who has transform (morph) software? I think it would be an interesting exercise to feed the undamaged image into it as the starting point, and feed the damaged image into it as the end point after scaling them appropriately. Then make a animated gif out of it.

Nice job pointing that out, UCANSEE2...definitely makes me think differently about the mechanics at the point of impact.

[TXnMA]

"I will recommend FR give you a pay raise."

LOL!!! As I often tell organizations for which I do volunteer work,

"The surest way to insult me ...is to threaten to double my 'salary'!... '-)

[Yaelle]

Oh good Lrd, how ghastly. Poor men (or women). And their poor families to have to know this is how they died.

And from what seems should have been preventable.

[Yaelle]

It is a bit depressing to come to that conclusion, that there are people who will sacrifice nearly ANYTHING for a few minutes of sexual pleasure.

---

Exactly. We cluck our tongues at cats who attempt and fail to cross a highway because they smelled a cat in heat on the other side. But how are we different?

My old boss told me stories of WII when he was in the desert with the British Army and they’d come across some small town with a shack with a bed and a haggard woman in there plying the world’s oldest profession, and a large group of soldiers would line up outside... His friend lined up to have his few minutes, and my boss tried to pull him out of line, trying to save his health and dignity, but the friend would not get out of line.

[Yaelle]

Dang that thread was pulled. Maybe this thread superseded it?