US Navy Destroyer USS Fitzgerald Collides with Container Ship 7 Sailors Dead

7 Sailors Dead, and 3 injured in collision.
Pray for the sailors, family, and friends.

UPDATE 6-18-17
https://youtu.be/WuPpqMPzh1g




https://youtu.be/0yYlMhl-Jf8
https://youtu.be/TCivi5cXYC8

http://gcaptain.com/us-navy-destroyer-collides-container-ship/

 

All 7 found dead in flooded compartments. Very sad. No idea how this could have even happened.

 

Yes, very sad

Somebody will be losing driver's license

Pray for all hurt and killed

 

My sister use to be on this boat ... there is no excuse as to why they were not alerted. They have 24 he watch. Heads are going to roll

 

Thanks to the four of you who replied.


I agree, there seems to be something not right about this, too many things went wrong for it to happen.

Yeah, somebody is going be in trouble over this.

Sad for all the sailors involved and their family and friends.

 

Very dangerous. So many scenarios that could of played out. Sad for the men who lost their lives and their families.

 

It would've been a nightmare to be onboard.

https://youtu.be/WuPpqMPzh1g

 

....and the cargo ship turning around? Seems oddly and strangely (dare I say it) intentional.

But seriously...the navy ... with its most advanced technology on board and they still couldn't or didn't see that coming? Or didn't have some sort of emergency horns?

 

I would not call such an accident intentional, but that is just me.

There was a good conversation about this in the 50+ age grouper thread.

Very sad indeed whatever exactly was that took place, the result in loss of life is the worst may it be a gun wound or a dumb splinter or whatever that causes our fragile bodies to subdue.

It happened at 2am so gotta imagine it was dark out. But clearly not an excuse given the age we live in filled with technology automation on top of man power and vigilance.

If you have ever walked on the bridge of a container ship, visibility is not exactly great... There is also a vast size difference between the two vessels.

I kinda see it like a car accident, the pedestrian always has the right of way and the car who rear ends the one in the front is always at fault.. However we all know that idiots text and walk without looking both ways before crossing and people text and drive and stop totally unexpected borderline criminal brake checking... so yea idk just my .02 way of looking at it from the other side of the street.

the boats will be repaired, someone will get fired, insurance companies with fight and then pay up, the 7 families are the only ones who lost here...

 

Well CO...you just hit retirement. Depending on how the events unfold, wouldnt surprise me if the XO, OPs, and other critical OOD/Watch guys involved get the cut or get hit with administrative issues.

 

Harm to the boat alone is enough for the CO to get the axe. The fact that this was likely very preventable between sonar sigs, comms, and visual identifiers will make this challenging for any who are on the bad end of the stick. Its not the first time for the Navy to have this happen at night, thus folks will expect a due protocol of cleaning house when they hit dry dock. It is very unfortunate as I would bet there were quite a few steps that might of been overlooked for this to have occurred.

 

just some stats: 200 feet is a big difference, took these #s off the wiki and google

ACX Crystal The ship is 222.6 metres (730 ft) in length overall and 31.1 metres (102 ft) wide

USS Fitzgerald: This ship length: 505 ft (154 m) Beam: 66 ft (20 m)


for anyone who is not familiar, basic rule on the water is the bigger ship always has the right of way

Please note i am in no way trying to point blame here on either one vessel. I personally believe both parties hold part of the fault.

 

Did you see the news about the 'track' of the cargo ship?

It passed by the navy ship.....and not 30 minutes (or so) later did a complete turn around heading back to the navy ship. Not intentional?
What person or Auto pilot does that?

 

No I have not seen that... But that does sound like something for sure.

I would just find it very tough to swallow that such a reckless move would be premeditated.

Idk much about the Navy, but I do know as fact that many container ships run on auto pilot when in open waters.

 

Unless I was seeing fake news....LOL. It was on the news this morning Good Morning America.

 

good point, no more and no less than any other of the fake news channels #s 1-500

 

If the destroyer was paying attention there is no way a container ship could intentionally hit it. It's a single screw, single rudder 29,000 ton freighter, it takes thousands of feet to change course and speed. A DDG can stop in it's own ship length and make high speed turns in less.

 

What @hoarder23 said. A big question for me is how a (relatively) nimble ship found its way into the path of a cumbersome cargo vessel and was not able to clear. No judgement here, I've been on my fair share of naval vessels but never been a part of their operations. It seems that on paper, this shouldn't have happened, even if there was hostile intent (which has yet to be determined).

 

No conspiracy here, just people having a difficult time with UTC and local time zones, the Japanese Coast Guard is reporting it happened at 1630 UTC. The collision happened where the container ship first turned hard stbd on the course plot that everyone has seen. Marine propulsion engines on ships like this aren't very good at making very fast changes when running at sea speed. You can hit the emergency stop, but now you've lost propulsion and, as a result, steerage. It also takes time to restore the plant from an emergency stop. From looking up the AIS chart of the vessel's movements after the collision (showing course and speed), it looks like the container ship continued ahead to slow down and make room while they figured out what was wrong with their ship. Once certain that they weren't at risk of sinking, they turned back around to port and returned to the Fitzgerald to render assistance, continuing to reduce speed until they were down into a maneuvering speed range prior to their last turn to stbd when they were released by the Japanese Coast Guard to continue to port.

 

Do you have a link for that?

Can you post that or link it?