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.

[Mariner]

15 responses to the post before full-on conspiracy delusion showed up...

[rlmorel]

Nothing personal against you, faucetman, but count me as skeptical.

So...you are saying that an electronic weapon was used bringing the Fitzgerald to a dead stop in the water (but not affecting any other ship in the area including the ACX Crystal, which was free to proceed) and the ACX Crystal knew of the Fitzgerald’s movements somehow (not something readily available even if one knew when they left port) and left its port at the right time (regardless of what the company wanted it to do, and when it wanted it to arrive at its destination) and plotted it so it could be in the same area in the ocean and ram it?

Who issued the electronic weapon attack? The Russians? The North Koreans? The Iranians? How was it delivered? A plane? Another ship in the area? From a container on the ACX Crystal? Did any other naval units notice this attack, or is it one of those ones that is a stealth attack and can’t be seen by other vessels or units? Or does it have a very small radius of effectiveness?

If I sound skeptical, it is because I am. This level of conspiracy theory machination in light of the available facts doesn’t fly. It makes us look a bit silly, to put it lightly.

[rlmorel]

Yes. Sigh.

[editor-surveyor]

.
This is total fake news for the extremely gullible!
.

[Mariner]

“No way the US Navy is not at fault.”

The bridge watch of the Fitz will be Courts Martialed and found guilty.

That is as certain as the day is long.

The ship itself was imminently capable of detecting and avoiding this freighter. That it did not is unconscionable.

[rlmorel]

Yep. In all the thought I have given this, I cannot find a single reason (unless I venture into the realm of conspiracy theory) to exonerate the Captain and crew.

This is damning, and is undoubtedly going to be a black eye for the Navy...and rightfully so.

For that reason, we are going to have to watch them carefully as they proceed with the Naval Board of Inquiry. They will avoid the whole truth if they think they can get away with it...it has been their pattern in the past.

[tophat9000]

This reports does not jibe with the other report I read yesterday

that the Container ship did not even know what it hit and had to circle back

and after the hit the US ship had no working radio so it was the Container ship that reported the incident an hour after it happened when it circled back-and found the US ship

What odd is the US did not see the container ship on radar its seem or hear warnings.... but Also have this report that the US ships radios were out for 4 hours after they hit ..odd on a Us navy combat ship to have all its radio go out after one hit a Combat ship you should not have one strategic chokepoint like that

so the question Raised ...Was he was ship having overall electronic outages or problem BEFORE the accident? Would explain both why didn’t see the container ship coming and unable to call-out for help after

[rlmorel]

Well, it IS Reuters...

Nuff said.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

I have read dozens of news reports and hundreds of FR comments and have not seen any report on what was the intended destination (prior to the collision) of the USS Fitzgerald.

Anybody know?

It would seem logical that the intended destination was Yokosuka Naval Base, but I have not seen anything to confirm that.

[meadsjn]

You can then include the OOD, the Navigator of the watch, the Boatswains Mate of the watch and the watch standers.

If the OOD ignored the screaming and shouting from the lookouts and CIC, those guys are probably not in trouble.

The OOD will fry, and the Captain will get retired.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

The Navy just needs some time to process everything. These days everyone expects results in minutes and the Navy has procedures. If it happens again in a few weeks it could be a systemic problem but abberations are different.

[rlmorel]

I think if the ship had a major electronics failure or outage, it would not be steaming at 20+ knots in the dark at 0130 in relatively busy coastal waters.

We know the Fitzgerald was not dead in the water as some people suggest, simply because the physics of the collision.

Fact: We know the ACX Crystal was doing around 19 knots.

If the collision occurred with a stationary Fitzgerald at that speed by a 30,000 ton ship, she would have likely been severed and/or sunk. That is, to me, incontestable. Therefore, we assume a relatively low speed differential between the two ships which still would result in that kind of damage we can see so far due to the simple tonnage disparity.

Fact: Given the visible damage, it seems likely that the Fitzgerald was overtaking the ACX Crystal, probably crusing at 20+ knots (I think at least 24-25 knots) to cause that damage, though I suppose it could be caused at even lower relative speeds due to the tonnage disparity.

Fact: Given the visible damage on the Fitzgerald AND the visible damage to the ACX Crystal, there was likely an angle of collision of around 20-30 degrees.

Look at this image of the ACX Crystal:

In my opinion, the only way the gray paint or damage occurs to the after portion of the bulbous hawsepipe opening (where the anchor chain comes out) is only possible if the Fitzgerald is going faster than the ACX Crystal and causes that damage at the point of impact with her forward motion.

TXnMA has done an in-depth analysis of the damage to the superstructure of the Fitzgerald, and is worth reviewing. Take a look if you haven't already.

[rlmorel]

They generally do not make that kind of information public knowledge, which is a problem for conspiracy theorists, IMO.

It is possible, but on the other hand, US Navy ships transit that area in normal operations, doing training, running drills, etc.

[rlmorel]

LOL, I apologize. It is not a “FACT” that the angle of impact was 20-30 degrees. That is a hypothesis at this time...sorry for the confusion, tophat9000.

[moovova]

You’re right. Sounds like there wasn’t enough “paying attention” on both ships.

[rlmorel]

It is hard to believe the OOD would ignore warnings, but...this is not unheard of, nor even uncommon, if history is any lesson.

An instructive example is that of the USS Missouri in 1950, because it has everything negative associated with it that is possible except loss of life. A new captain on his first time taking her to sea, stupidity, arrogance, ignorance, bad judgement, politics, money, engineering, embarrassment, a large ship and a monumental grounding.

On his first time out of Norfolk, VA on his new ship, the captain decided to take her up to 15 knots in an area he shouldn't have anyway, went to the wrong side of a marker, had multiple people try to tell him he was going to the wrong side of a channel marker and sailed his 57,000 ton ship at 15 knots (at an unusually extreme high tide, for extra bad luck) onto a very, very gently sloping shoal of gooey, slippery solid mud.

There were people looking at each other (who knew the area well) wondering what he was doing, voiced their opinions and when a quartermaster spoke out, received an icy rebuke, the die was cast.

The ship sailed nearly half a mile onto the gooey, slippery mud, and the grounding was so gradual that the first indication they had on the bridge there was a problem was not the decrease of speed, but the overheating of machinery because the intake valves were sucking up mud!

She sat in full view of a major highway for two weeks, and they finally got her off after completely unloading EVERYTHING on the ship that could be moved, waiting for as high a tide as they could. They had 14 tugboats, and divers in the water with water hoses on the bottom using the jets to free mud from the ship's hull while tugs on each side worked in concert to rock the vessel, and tugs pulled astern.

Just amazing.

[Vlad The Inhaler]

Another take is that the radars and other forms of ranging did not work or were off-line for maintenance.

But the good old Mark-1 eyeball should have still been working okay.

[rlmorel]

I don’t know what it is like today, but in times past, there was training for times you didn’t have all those things...such as combat...and how you would get by. I presumed they still did that, but I admit, I don’t know.

If not, that is crazy, a recipe for disaster.

[batterycommander]

Nothing good happens at 0200 AM.