I think, as another poster stated...”all the holes in the swiss cheese line up”.
I personally don’t see anything that unusual with the ACX Crystal...it is a civilian ship, from what I understand, it is the middle of the night, etc. And it was far larger, and by all accounts, would have had the right of way. I don’t really put much in their accounts right now, but even still...
I strongly doubt the Fitzgerald was on autopilot...I have not heard of US Navy ships that size using those, but I could simply be outdated. But, being a warship, they should have had eyes.
My point is that the dozens of Fitzgerald crew who were on duty for the purpose of looking out for stuff were behaving like a computer was steering the ship at the time of the collision and they were all asleep.
I was at a Common Core lecture a couple of weeks ago and a major concern expressed at that meeting is that our educational system is graduating kids with poor cognitive skills.
Some facts that should have been readily known by the Fitzgerald crew.
1. The Fitzgerald had been stationed at Yokosuka for 13 years and every one should have known the traffic lanes approaching/leaving Yokohama are busy and they would have known where the typical turns are located.
2. The Fitzgerald was built to be as undetectable as possible so it may not show up very well on cargo ship radar.
3. The Fitzgerald does not use AIS so unlike other ships whose location is constantly tracked by AIS, the Fitzgerald is a stealth vessel to everybody.
So if the crew has poor cognitive skills, then they would not necessarily factor the above into their behavior.