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

Guerrilla · Jun 18, 2017

I've been thinking what a nightmare this was like being onboard, a literal nightmare.
Not too mention wondering if any lost was anybody I knew.

hoarder23 · Jun 18, 2017

Guerrilla[OP] said: ↑

Do you have a link for that?

Can you post that or link it?
Click to expand...

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...mmsi:548789000/imo:9360611/vessel:ACX_CRYSTAL

Click on Past Track

Guerrilla · Jun 18, 2017

hoarder23 said: ↑

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.
Click to expand...

Yeah, They're like big ski boats.
Example
https://youtu.be/mzveUz-WRGQ

corprin · Jun 18, 2017

Who was the SPY-1D operator on duty? The container ship hit center mass of the forward starboard array.

Maybe the container ship was on a radar seeking auto-pilot... better call Sandra Bullock and Jason Patric!!

Lawfarin · Jun 18, 2017

I couldn't imagine being on that either ship asleep and feeling that impact. The Navy ship has a lot more crew and advanced systems. They should of been alerted long before any impact was made. Regardless who you put at fault even though the navy ship is much more maneuverable with a lot more advanced systems and crew. It's sad 7 people lost their lives to something that was 100% avoidable. Makes you wonder what the hell the crew that were operating the destroyer were doing? I'm sure the ocean liner was in auto pilot and only manned by 1 or two people at the time. I'm not ex military so I haven't a clue but I always thought they are suppose to be prepared for anything at anytime. Seems to me that if a large container ship can run into them, than a pirate ship, or another hostile ship easily could of tried something. Either way this is a black eye to the Navy and I'm sure several people will be punished for it

Louisd75 · Jun 18, 2017

Guerrilla[OP] said: ↑

Can you post that or link it?
Click to expand...

Here's a screen grab from gCaptain.com:

Here's what I wrote over in the WTF thread:

TLDR? Navy probably went "Squirrel!" and made an unpredictable change without looking out the window, AB didn't catch it and the Mate was looking at a computer screen and things went bump in the night with likely loss of 7 US sailors.

After nearly a decade of working on commercial ships, I'm not surprised. Sailboats and the US Navy are the worst when it comes to unpredictably and disregard of COLREGS. I was in a near collision involving a nuclear missile submarine (SSBN) while working on a cargo ship. It literally came down to the Captain of the sub, while running at periscope depth in a shipping lane with vessel traffic present, turned into oncoming traffic to pass another boat without first looking. If he had looked, he would have seen a very large (over 800') ice class ship cruising along at nearly 22kts the opposite direction. Fortunately for me, my capt at the time was sharp and we were able to get our turn started before we ran over the sub. The capt of the sub was relieved of duty. I've heard from another buddy on SSNs that that incident is now a training scenario.

Another fun one was an aircraft carrier that wanted us to pass in Puget Sound further away than the sound is wide. They were adamant. We literally could not get it through to them that what they were asking for was impossible as we'd have to go half a mile inland. The area around Southern California and Hawaii are fun as well. My observance of Navy operations, especially if they're not transiting, is like a dog that sees a squirrel. Let's go over here. Now let's go over there. Hard to port, hard to stbd, flank, stop, etc. They can be very unpredictable.

I could totally see how this collision occurred though. Merchant ships tend to go from point A to point B. It's extremely predictable, just a matter of figuring out a passing arrangement. Most merchant ships now days have an AIS, or Automated Information System, that tells the name of the vessel, the heading the vessel is traveling, and the speed. (check out http://www.marinetraffic.com for an example) Most of these systems can be setup to sound an alarm if another vessel is on a collision course, or even going to be passing you within a minimum preset distance. Heck, it alarms to let you know if you get more than a certain distance from your planned route or when there's a turn coming up. Unfortunately, the Navy, even in congested shipping lanes, doesn't often use this system. They rely on radar and eyeballs. This isn't the end of the world. The Navy ship just wouldn't show up on that particular computer screen. The cargo ship should also have some eyes peeking out the window and keeping an eye on the radar, though in reality, at 0230, it's probably only a mate and an AB and the mate is probably doing paperwork on the chart table. If there was an overcast or if the moon hadn't yet risen it can be very dark looking out the window. Heck, even something like someone having a curtain open to their stateroom can reflect enough light off of the container stack to seriously degrade the bridge team's night vision. I could totally see the Navy deciding to do some sort of 0230 exercise and starting some real evasive maneuver to avoid an imaginary adversary and overlooking the fact that there's a container ship cruising down on them at sea speed. The container ship was likely relying on their AIS and not their radar to warn them of anything big enough to be worried about running into. There are lots of near-miss stories about sail boats and fishing boats almost getting run down, there's probably a sad reason we don't hear about them actually getting run down. For whatever reason, neither of the guys in either wheelhouse saw the other.

The Navy Capt was injured in the collision. I'm curious to read about how, whether he was on the bridge or in his rack. I hope that the missing crew turn out OK, but I'm not holding my breath. ):
Click to expand...

Guerrilla · Jun 18, 2017

Lawfarin said: ↑

I couldn't imagine being on that either ship asleep and feeling that impact. The Navy ship has a lot more crew and advanced systems. They should of been alerted long before any impact was made. Regardless who you put at fault even though the navy ship is much more maneuverable with a lot more advanced systems and crew. It's sad 7 people lost their lives to something that was 100% avoidable. Makes you wonder what the hell the crew that were operating the destroyer were doing? I'm sure the ocean liner was in auto pilot and only manned by 1 or two people at the time. I'm not ex military so I haven't a clue but I always thought they are suppose to be prepared for anything at anytime. Seems to me that if a large container ship can run into them, than a pirate ship, or another hostile ship easily could of tried something. Either way this is a black eye to the Navy and I'm sure several people will be punished for it
Click to expand...

Yeah you're right.
It would've been horrible. The impact, noises, the water rushing in etc.. I hate it for them. Traumatic event.

Louisd75 said: ↑

Here's a screen grab from gCaptain.com:

Here's what I wrote over in the WTF thread:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the screen grab.

You make a lot of good points.
And glad you all missed the sub that would've been bad.

Louisd75 · Jun 18, 2017

Guerrilla[OP] said: ↑

Thanks for the screen grab.

You make a lot of good points.
And glad you all missed the sub that would've been bad.
Click to expand...

http://archive.seattleweekly.com/home/930955-129/military

Yep, it would have been ugly for all involved. It was the last day of my rotation and I was sitting on packed bags at the time, ready to turnover and go home. I think it's a lot easier to get off of a sinking ship that is still at the surface than a sinking ship that's already under the surface.

Guerrilla · Jun 18, 2017

Louisd75 said: ↑

http://archive.seattleweekly.com/home/930955-129/military

Yep, it would have been ugly for all involved. It was the last day of my rotation and I was sitting on packed bags at the time, ready to turnover and go home. I think it's a lot easier to get off of a sinking ship that is still at the surface than a sinking ship that's already under the surface.
Click to expand...

That's wild, I remember that incident.

Louisd75 · Jun 18, 2017

Guerrilla[OP] said: ↑

That's wild, I remember that incident.
Click to expand...

It was pretty uneventful for those not on the bridge. I felt the ship heel as we went hard over. I figured at the time that if the bridge team were dealing with something that caused them to turn that hard that I would just be a distraction if I went to the wheelhouse. Someone else was on watch in the engine room, so I just kept cleaning my room.

Guerrilla · Jun 18, 2017

Louisd75 said: ↑

It was pretty uneventful for those not on the bridge. I felt the ship heel as we went hard over. I figured at the time that if the bridge team were dealing with something that caused them to turn that hard that I would just be a distraction if I went to the wheelhouse. Someone else was on watch in the engine room, so I just kept cleaning my room.
Click to expand...

Small world, crazy you were on the other ship involved.

Louisd75 · Jun 19, 2017

The time disparity is getting cleared up. 0230 (1730 UTC) looks to be the time that the Fitz reported the collision to 7th Fleet. The collision actually occurred an hour earlier, at 0130 (1630 UTC). This makes my earlier speculation about the Crystal's track much more likely than the Crystal making a bunch of random 180s. I would also imagine that the crew of the Fitz was a bit busy for that hour.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...p-350am:homepage/story&utm_term=.820d65b2d231

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0003768958

The USN has identified those that passed:

http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=101102

Judging from their ratings it looks as though they were in a berthing area, though I'm not familiar with the general layout of military ships. I just hope that they died in the initial collision and not the resulting flooding.

Guerrilla · Jun 19, 2017

Louisd75 said: ↑

The time disparity is getting cleared up. 0230 (1730 UTC) looks to be the time that the Fitz reported the collision to 7th Fleet. The collision actually occurred an hour earlier, at 0130 (1630 UTC). This makes my earlier speculation about the Crystal's track much more likely than the Crystal making a bunch of random 180s. I would also imagine that the crew of the Fitz was a bit busy for that hour.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/investigators-question-how-a-navy-destroyer-and-a-container-ship-collided/2017/06/19/aa551222-54bb-11e7-9e18-968f6ad1e1d3_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_japanship-350am:homepage/story&utm_term=.820d65b2d231

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0003768958

The USN has identified those that passed:

http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=101102

Judging from their ratings it looks as though they were in a berthing area, though I'm not familiar with the general layout of military ships. I just hope that they died in the initial collision and not the resulting flooding.
Click to expand...

Their ratings wouldn't determine which berthing they were in, you'll have a mixture. Normally the only time you'll have different berthings is concerning rank. And depending on what ship it can vary even with that, some even hot rack.

But yeah, I'm like you I sure hope they died in their sleep from impact. the thought of the berthing compartment flooding and them knowing it is horrible.. I've had dreams like like, nightmares.
I'm sure the water came quick tho, but I really hope they didn't even know.
Had to have been traumatic for their shipmates, that's a whole other story.

Kristian OR · Sep 22, 2017

I'd just be pissed about the River City 1..

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

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