USS Fitzgerald reportedly ignored cargo ships warnings before deadly impact

[n2doc]

The captain of the Filipino cargo ship that struck USS Fitzgerald off the coast of Japan, killing seven U.S. sailors, claims the Navy destroyer ignored his ship’s emergency signals before the fatal impact, Reuters reports .

The news service obtained an investigation statement from the skipper of the massive container ship ACX Crystal detailing the vessel’s account of the June 17 collision (emphasis added):

In the first detailed account from one of those directly involved, the cargo ship’s captain said the ACX Crystal had signaled with flashing lights after the Fitzgerald “suddenly” steamed onto a course to cross its path.

The container ship steered hard to starboard (right) to avoid the warship, but hit the Fitzgerald 10 minutes later at 1:30 a.m., according to a copy of Captain Ronald Advincula’s report to Japanese ship owner Dainichi Investment Corporation that was seen by Reuters.

The U.S. Navy declined to comment and Reuters was not able to independently verify the account.

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http://www.businessinsider.com/report-uss-fitzgerald-ignored-cargo-ships-warnings-before-impact-2017-6

[PubliusEnigma]

1. Aircraft Carrier vs Lighthouse?

[sarah FAILIN]

2. I don't know if I believe this.

What I saw showed the cargo ship turn to hit them then keep going a long time without even reporting what they had done.

[exboyfil]

5. A better story was we were asleep

and finally figured it out.

Steaming away after striking another vessel is a lot more serious situation. He is not helping himself.

[Blue_true]

3. I have yet to figure out how a modern Navy ship, with sophisticated navigation

aides, can't what is coming up on it for miles around. Was discipline lax on the ship and the shift sailing it asleep of otherwise occupied?

[maveric]

4. That's got me puzzled as well.

USN ships rarely let their vessels get that close to them.

[exboyfil]

7. The Crystal was the overtaking vessel

and was doing some course corrections (related to staying clear of shallow water?). The course corrections were probably GPS programmed.

Best case for the bridge crew of the Fitzgerald was that the Crystal had the responsibility of avoiding collision because it was overtaking. Fitzgerald thought it was not a problem based upon direction prior to the course correction.

If the Crystal stopped immediately then they would be completely in the clear in my opinion. I don't think they should have necessarily known a Destroyer was present (the Navy turns off the nautical version of a transponder) and Destroyers are designed to reduce radar contact. Was the Fitzgerald running with lights? If not then there is no reason to expect the Crystal to know they are there - even then what could they do (it is like navigating a freight train).

The fact they proceeded on for at least a half hour after the collision makes the Crystal look very bad.

The Fitzgerald should never have let the Crystal get that close though irrespective of who had the right of way. Careers are going down in flames, and, depending on the reason, someone may end up in Leavenworth.

[Kaleva]

6. Whoever was OOD really fucked up.

The CO was in his stateroom when the collision took place as he was trapped in there for a bit.

[Blue_true]

8. I have a nephew who is career Navy.

He works with NCIS. Maybe I will get insight from him on what the hell could have happened.

[flotsam]

9. This entire story stinks...

That said I'll add a pox on both houses-the navy ship actions are totally incomprehensible, but if the container ship saw the destroyer at least 10 minutes before the collision why only flashing lights-why not emergency radio calls and collision alarms or even flares? You sit watching an oncoming tragedy and settle for flashing your running lights? Have you no spotlights or pyrotechnics? Also "suddenly" steamed onto a collision course implies the destroyer changed course which also seems unlikely. Total warp speed bullshit is my call. On the navy's part you are talking a ship designed to stop missiles less than 2' in diameter and less than 20' long traveling at mach speed from 200 miles out and yet it failed to spot a 700' ship travelling less than 20 knots at under 1 mile. The only sure outcome is years of claims and counter-claims and 2 guys who will need to buy Chriscrafts if they ever want another command...

[Sancho]

10. Busy shipping lanes at night and no one watching? Crazy.

Even my little sailboat has AIS that would have warned of collision with a large ship miles away. The Fitzgerald wouldn't broadcast their location, but they surely should see the ship traffic, not to mention radar and simply standing watch.

The cargo ship probably was on auto navigation with a simply body watching just to "flash lights" and things. They probably go for years with nothing happening expect a radio call. Changing the programming may have involved waking someone up so that may explain the delay to stop. Poor planning, but typical. The Fitzgerald was probably hard to see and harder to recognize (didn't have a bunch of freighter lights), so the Crystal crew saw something, flashed his lights, and it was too late to stop or avoid with combined closing speeds of 30 knots or more.

Our military ships here don't get close or let anyone get close to them, and we have busy shipping lanes around Florida too.

I'm guessing the majority of the blame is Fitzgerald, even if Crystal didn't act perfectly.

[Kaleva]

11. Does the Navy use lookouts anymore?

[denbot]

12. Look outs on signal bridge, also fore and aft, plus radar on bridge and CIC

The bridge also maintains a physical watch. The redundancy is to prevent this kind of tragedy.

[Lee-Lee]

13. I saw a merchant mariner post somewhere else

That they have cut crews and automated so much on ships now that most likely all the engineering staff in the Crystal were asleep and in order to even stop the ship they would have to awaken them and get them to the engine room to start procideures for slowing or stopping the engines.

No clue how accurate that is, but I found it interesting.