Investigation Reveals Navy At Fault For Massive USS Fitzgerald Collision

dailycaller.com ^ | 7/21/2017 | Jonah Bennett

[rktman]

A preliminary investigation into the collision of the USS Fitzgerald and a Philippine cargo ship in June has revealed that the U.S. Navy is at fault.

According to two defense officials who spoke with CNN, the crew aboard the USS Fitzgerald made numerous abysmal mistakes which led to the collision with the ACX Crystal in an area known for commercial shipping.

The investigation is likely to result in recommendations for possible punishment, making the review “dual purpose.”

“They did nothing until the last second,” one official said, speaking of the crew on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. “A slew of things went wrong.”

The second official stated that the crash “will wind up being our fault.”

Initial findings suggest that the Fitzgerald crew not only did not acknowledge the ship was approaching, but sailors also failed to perform their duties in order to stop the impact, which left a large gash in the side of the destroyer measuring about 200 feet.

The collision on June 17, which occurred 56 miles off the coast of Japan, resulted in the deaths of seven U.S. Navy sailors.

The findings up to this point will be sent to 7th Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin for review.

Aucoin has already stated the day after the collision that the damage to the Fitzgerald is major.

“The ship suffered severe damage rapidly flooding three large compartments that included one machine room and two berthing areas for 116 crew, ” Aucoin said. “The commanding officer’s cabin was also directly hit, trapping the CO inside.”

The Fitzgerald has undergone extensive repairs since the incident, but will have to return to a U.S. shipyard for full repairs. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Scott Swift is looking for a ship to take over the work of the Fitzgerald in the meantime.

[Bull Snipe]

What MMs, BTs or GSs do on watch may cause thing to go HD&Q, but they wont be the cause of a collision at sea.

[Yosemitest]

I suggest you wait for the FULL REPORT to be released for that information.
And based on the parties involved, and the "high probabilities of classified information" being used to reveal all of the facts they have, we are probably not going to have access to all of that information.

On the short list of governments involved, we have:
The Philippines,
China,
Russia,
and the U.S.A.
And that's just a short list.

And the thought of China being involved with Muslims in command of the ACX Crystal, is very threatening !

[rktman]

I moved to the IC gang after a heat related issue in the aft engine room. If we screwed up the compass, we still could have caused a problem. Best part was taking the officers movie projector if the enlisted one was broke. ;-)

[PapaBear3625]

Yes, language is important. "Rammed" is the perfect word.

Even if a container ship's helmsman decided to ram the destroyer, he should not have been ABLE to.

It's an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. It has a listed top speed of over 30 knots. An alert and competent bridge crew should have been able to evade collision with a lumbering container ship, no matter HOW much the container ship wanted to ram.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

From Fox News: “”One U.S. official pointed to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Navigation Rules & Regulations Handbook which clearly states this rule: “When two power-driven vessels are crossing so as to involve risk of collision, the vessel which has the other on her own starboard side shall keep out of the way and shall, if the circumstances of the case admit, avoid crossing ahead of the other vessel.””

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/07/21/uss-fitzgerald-collision-crew-should-have-spoken-up-before-accident-official-says.html

---

The Navy is pretty much admitting the Fitzgerald crossed in front of the ACX Crystal.

[deport]

[JustaTech]

That error of simply using a real propulsion section instead of an inert one for the missile exercise was a one or two-man mistake at most, which happened below decks. Of course using a civilian airliner for an exercise target was also technically against the rules, though apparently that particular injunction was widely disregarded. Hopefully no longer since the shoot-down.

I give no credence to ANYTHING from CNN, but assuming from the totality of the situation that the entire Fitzgerald bridge crew failed to dodge an enormous cargo ship, that is a much more systemic and worrying malfunction than TWA 800, notwithstanding the lower casualty count.

[Bull Snipe]

Radars work just as well in relative bearing as they do with a gyro input. But it takes a trained scope operator or watch officer to know how to read the screen. A ship can be conned by magnetic compass bearing almost as well as with a gyro compass bearing. Again the watch officers have to know what they are doing.

[Yosemitest]

"Even if a container ship's helmsman decided to ram the destroyer, he should not have been ABLE to.

It's an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.
It has a listed top speed of over 30 knots. "

Must I remind you of the FACTS ?

Source "... The container ship neither had its running lights or transponder on.

That is an action taken willfully. ... "

Have you ever been in a "Command Level" position during a critical situation ?
I have.

Let's take a closer look at some critical information.

What time did the collision actually occur ?
Was it night or day ?
Was the Captain's equipment working just before the collision ?
HOW LONG had that equipment been "out of operation" ?
What is the reset time for the USS Fitzgerald's RADAR equipment to become serviceable again after it goes OFF LINE due to an EPM Attack ?
Was the visibility clear, or was it foggy ?
What was the weather report from that area or from the USS Fitzgerald an hour before the collision and were there any changes to that report during that hour ?
What was the Official Weather Observation right after that collision ?

Was there ANY REASON that the Captain of the USS Fitzgerald might expect any ship, especially a cargo carrying civilian ship to attack it ?
What was his priorities in getting all electrical equipment (radios, radar, etc) back on line after total electrical failure ?

I could go on, but I won't ...

because until you've been in the "hot seat" making those decisions on what to recover next, you have NO COMPREHENSION of
just how critical those decisions are,
and just how critical the order of making those decision is during normal operations, during 'an exercise', or during a declared alert, or even during a time of real WAR ... are ?

[Zeppo]

There is as much evidence behind that speculation as there is evidence that the collision was:

• An attack orchestrated by an alien commando force that traveled to Earth from Rigel 3 via a disintegrating Class XV wormhole
• Pulled off by Dr. Evil and his henchmen in order to extort one million dollars from the United States government, by taking over the controls of both the USS Fitzgerald and the ACX Crystal, and deliberately ramming the former with the latter, with the help of sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads
• Caused by CIA agents who used MKUltra mind control to hypnotize the Fitzgerald's crew
• The result of a teleportation spell cast by Hillary Clinton and her acolytes that physically picked up the Fitzgerald and deposited her directly in the path of the container ship

I'm not saying that any of those things actually happened, mind you.

I'm just following the trail given by the (lack of) evidence. You can decide for yourself.

[Yosemitest]

Read comment #69 .

[Zeppo]

Your concept of what constitutes a “fact” could use some fine-tuning and recalibration.

Sure, we all know that unsourced and unverified hearsay by a “Loving and Concerned Navy Mother” whose son is “assigned to the USS Fitzgerald” and published on a blog constitutes an unimpeachable “fact”.

Well, um, no, it does not.

My bad...

[Yosemitest]

After 26+ years in the military and 5 years in the FAA, I’ll always take a first hand report, especially from a military member, over others.

[SauronOfMordor]

1) The assertion that the transponder was off appears to be false. Otherwise where did that position plot graph come from?

2) If the destroyer had just experienced an EMP attack that had taken their radars offline, why was the captain in bed? One would expect the bridge crew to have immediately woken him, even if that meant somebody running to his cabin and pounding his door. Hell, I’m not Navy, but if all of a sudden all my radars had just gone offline, my first impulse would be to sound General Quarters (by whatever mechanism available)

[Enterprise]

I honestly don't know the severity of damage the merchant ship might have done to a battleship like Missouri, but I wouldn't describe the Missouri as a sea going Ferrari either. And as we know, this was not a true 90 degree T-bone collision. It was much steeper angled collision.

[Yosemitest]

What time was the EMP attack ?
What time did the collision occur ?

I think you will find these two time very close together, and not enough time for the Captain to even be notified of the EMP attack, before the collision actually occurred.

[SauronOfMordor]

I would have expected a competently run Navy warship to be aware of the positions and headings of all ships in the area, and for a ship running without transponder to draw a LOT of attention.

And we have not heard of any emp attack outside of one unverified blog post.

[SaveFerris]

[ What part of CBDR (Constant Bearing, Decreasing Range) did they NOT understand? ]

Yes, excellent question.

I’ve seen a lot of people freeze in situations of even relatively mild things. Makes it hard for me to trust some folks.

With your CBDR question, it almost makes me think it was unmanned in some areas; trusted to autopilot. Hope we get to see an official report.

[mad_as_he$$]

True it wasn’t 90 degrees. That said it was at a close enough to 90 degree angle for the bulbous bow of the Crystal to tear a hole below the water line that appears to be 12-16 feet long in the Fitz. One of the questions I have since this happened is - how did the two ships disengage? One theory is that the Crystal actually pushed the Fitz sideways in the water. If that is true her hull is probably twisted or bent and she is scrap.