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Thread: 7 U.S. Sailors Unaccounted for After Navy Destroyer Collides With Ship Off Japan

  1. #1

    Exclamation 7 U.S. Sailors Unaccounted for After Navy Destroyer Collides With Ship Off Japan

    7 U.S. Sailors Unaccounted for After Navy Destroyer Collides With Ship Off Japan

    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...-japan-n773521

    by Courtney Kube and Phil McCausland

    Seven U.S. sailors are unaccounted for after a Navy destroyer collided with a merchant ship southwest of Yokosuka, Japan, early Saturday local time, the Navy said.

    The USS Fitzgerald, a 505-foot destroyer, collided with a Philippine container vessel at approximately 2:30 a.m. Saturday local time (1:30 p.m. ET Friday), about 56 nautical miles of Yokosuka, the U.S. 7th Fleet said.

    The ship, which had experienced some flooding after the collision, and the Japanese Coast Guard were searching for the seven missing sailors, the Fleet said.

    "Right now we are focused on two things: the safety of the ship and the well-being of the Sailors," Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a statement. "We thank our Japanese partners for their assistance."

    The Fitzgerald’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Bryce Benson, was injured and transported by helicopter to the U.S. Naval Hospital Yokosuka and is reportedly in stable condition, the Fleet said. Two other were also injured and flown by helicopter to the naval hospital. the Navy said.

    The White House said President Donald Trump was briefed on the situation.

    The Fleet said earlier that some flooding was reported on the Fitzgerald, but it remained under its own power but propulsion was limited.

    The Fitzgerald suffered damage to its starboard side above and below the waterline, the Fleet said earlier. A U.S. Navy official said after the collision that the bridge was damaged and communication with the ship was limited and difficult.



    "U.S. and Japanese support from the Navy, Maritime Self Defense Force and Coast Guard are in the area to ensure that the Sailors on USS Fitzgerald have the resources they need to stabilize their ship,” Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, said in a statement.

    "As more information is learned, we will be sure to share to it with the Fitzgerald families and when appropriate the public. Thank you for your well wishes and messages of concern. All of our thoughts and prayers are with the Fitzgerald crew and their families," Richardson said.

    The USS Dewey and Navy several Navy aircraft will also the Japanese Coast Guard and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force to assist in the search.
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  3. #2
    The other ship.


  4. #3
    Just based on what I am seeing here, and not knowing what kind of crossing arrangements may have been made, but that looks like the navy vessel $#@!ed up.

    In a crossing situation, such as this obviously was, the vessel on the starboard side, the green side, the container ship, has the right of way, and the vessel on the port, the red side, the navy ship, is obliged to keep clear, slow down and let the other ship pass ahead or alter course and pass astern of the other vessel.

    And navy ships are not cops, they are required to follow the "rules of the road" just like any other vessel.

    Last edited by Anti Federalist; 06-16-2017 at 09:58 PM.

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    Just based on what I am seeing here, and not knowing what kind of crossing arrangements may have been made, but that looks like the navy vessel $#@!ed up.

    In a crossing situation, such as this obviously was, the vessel on the starboard side, the green side, the container ship, has the right of way, and the vessel on the port, the red side, the navy ship, is obliged to keep clear, slow down and let the other ship pass ahead or alter course and pass astern of the other vessel.

    And navy ships are not cops, they are required to follow the "rules of the road" just like any other vessel.

    I would tend to agree, based purely upon what has been reported and the size and maneuverability of the two ships. If you drive your car into the side of a locomotive, the blame tends to point to the smaller vehicle.
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  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    I would tend to agree, based purely upon what has been reported and the size and maneuverability of the two ships. If you drive your car into the side of a locomotive, the blame tends to point to the smaller vehicle.
    Well, in this case, size has little to do with it, in this case the larger vessel "drove" into the smaller one, the navy vessel.

    Based on what I can see and the damage that was done it looks like the naval vessel maintained course and speed, presenting her starboard side to the approaching container ship, in a misjudged attempt to cross her bow, a violation of Rule 15.

    It also looks like, at the last minute, the container ship altered course to starboard in an attempt to avoid the naval vessel, the damage on the bow indicates that.

    The flooding on the destroyer is due to the bulbous bow on the container ship punching a 15 foot diameter hole in her hull below the waterline.

    That also indicates a pretty much perpendicular collision.

    Now, that said, the rules are written in such a way that the other vessel, the container ship, while required to hold course and speed, is also required to take action if the other vessel is not complying with the rules and danger of collision exists. She violated Rule 17.

    RULE 7

    Risk of Collision.

    (a) Every vessel shall use all available means appropriate to the prevailing circumstances and conditions to determine if risk of collision exists. If there is any doubt, such risk shall be deemed to exist.


    (ii) such risk may sometimes exist even when an appreciable bearing change is evident, particularly when approaching a very large vessel or a tow or when approaching a vessel at close range.

    RULE 15

    Crossing Situation.

    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.


    Rule 17

    Action by Stand-on Vessel.

    (a) (i) Where one of two vessels is to keep out of the way the other shall keep her course and speed.

    (ii) The latter vessel may however take action to avoid collision by her manoeuvre alone, as soon as it becomes apparent to her that the vessel required to keep out of the way is not taking appropriate action in compliance with these rules.

    (b) When, from any cause, the vessel required to keep her course and speed finds herself so close that collision cannot be avoided by the action of the give-way vessel alone, she shall take such action as will best aid to avoid collision.


    That's the "Gotcha" rule.

  7. #6
    Now, that's just based on what I see in the pictures.

    There are any number of other possibilities based on radio passing agreements, mechanical failure that could have altered course or speed abruptly on either vessel, electronic navigation equipment failure...

  8. #7
    As one who tends not to jump to early conclusions regarding these type of things, I faithfully offer the possibility that the captain was preoccupied with a sailor who had his shirt tail hanging out while the helmsman was ordered to maintain the turn.



    Regardless, it is fitting that the captain was hurt badly enough to be evacuated.

    I will assume that the maritime business is the same as aviation in that there are no real good excuses for navigational errors, taxiing errors, and see and avoid errors.
    Last edited by sparebulb; 06-17-2017 at 08:44 AM.

  9. #8
    yep...somebody on that navy ship $#@!ed up. BIG TIME.



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by sparebulb View Post
    As one who tends not to jump to early conclusions regarding these type of things, I faithfully offer the possibility that the captain was preoccupied with a sailor who had his shirt tail hanging out while the helmsman was ordered to maintain the turn.



    Regardless, it is fitting that the captain was hurt badly enough to be evacuated.

    I will assume that the maritime business is the same as aviation in that there are no real good excuses for navigational errors, taxiing errors, and see and avoid errors.
    One of my favorite books and favorite movies.

    That said, at 0230, the CO wasn't on the bridge, he was in his stateroom, sound asleep more than likely and also likely that is why he was injured, because the master's room would be right about where that damage is on the topsides house.

    Unless there was something extraordinary going on prior to the collision, a junior officer had the conn at the time, I'm quite sure.

    Not that it matters, the CO will still be held to blame even if he was "asleep and off watch at the time".

    And your assumption is quite right...see the "Gotcha" rule I posted earlier.

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by JK/SEA View Post
    yep...somebody on that navy ship $#@!ed up. BIG TIME.
    Might have been obsessed about some missing ice cream or something.

  13. #11
    The USS Fitzgerald, a 505-foot destroyer, collided with a Philippine container vessel at approximately 2:30 a.m. Saturday local time (1:30 p.m. ET Friday), about 56 nautical miles of Yokosuka, the U.S. 7th Fleet said.
    Is the American ship OK?
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  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Dr.3D View Post
    Might have been obsessed about some missing ice cream or something.
    Strawberries
    Brawndo's got what plants crave. Its got electrolytes.



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  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by francisco View Post
    Strawberries
    Yes, strawberries and ice cream.

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by francisco View Post
    Strawberries
    Doc beat me to it.

  17. #15

  18. #16
    Looks like bodies have been found in the wreckage and remains sent for testing for identification , families are being notified . Safe to say all 7 are deceased .
    Do something Danke



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  20. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by TheTexan View Post
    Is the American ship OK?
    No and a very irresponsible use of tax dollars it appears .
    Do something Danke

  21. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Dr.3D View Post
    Yes, strawberries and ice cream.
    You think that's bad, can you imagine being on a boat where AF is the skipper?
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  22. #19
    Rules are going to have to change in regards to yielding the right of way to any and all American Military Vessels. If it were not for Russia hacking the election this would have never happened. I heard from reliable sources that this time the Philippines conspired with Russia and the Philippines were the ones responsible for the leak. Regardless the ocean is too small of a place to have this kind of stuff happening. I wonder how many small sailboats unknowingly get run over by military vessels each year.

  23. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Schifference View Post
    Rules are going to have to change in regards to yielding the right of way to any and all American Military Vessels. If it were not for Russia hacking the election this would have never happened. I heard from reliable sources that this time the Philippines conspired with Russia and the Philippines were the ones responsible for the leak. Regardless the ocean is too small of a place to have this kind of stuff happening. I wonder how many small sailboats unknowingly get run over by military vessels each year.
    +rep for safety American military vessels should always have right-of-way
    It's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
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  24. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by oyarde View Post
    Looks like bodies have been found in the wreckage and remains sent for testing for identification , families are being notified . Safe to say all 7 are deceased .
    That breaks my heart.

  25. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by angelatc View Post
    That breaks my heart.
    Yes , horrible .
    Do something Danke

  26. #23
    Worst possible time for negligence is middle of the night . Nearly everyone will be asleep and thus more prone to injury .
    Do something Danke

  27. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    That said, at 0230, the CO wasn't on the bridge, he was in his stateroom, sound asleep more than likely and also likely that is why he was injured, because the master's room would be right about where that damage is on the topsides house.

    Unless there was something extraordinary going on prior to the collision, a junior officer had the conn at the time, I'm quite sure.

    Not that it matters, the CO will still be held to blame even if he was "asleep and off watch at the time".
    Deadly Collision Crushed Captain’s Cabin of USS Fitzgerald

    Bodies of seven U.S. sailors recovered after the U.S. destroyer collided with the ACX Crystal

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/seven-u...hip-1497750366

    YOKOSUKA, Japan—As most of its crew slept on Friday night, the USS Fitzgerald passed through one of Japan’s busiest shipping lanes just south of Tokyo, a watch crew assigned to guide its passage.

    In a period of seconds, a 29,000 ton cargo ship loaded with containers plowed into its right side, crushing a large section of the destroyer’s main structure, including the captain’s cabin and sleeping quarters for 116 sailors below the waterline. Seawater flooded in through a large gash.

    As the crew scrambled to save themselves and the ship, seven sailors didn’t make it out of the berthing area. Their bodies were recovered by divers after the ship crawled to the port of Yokosuka.

    “The water inflow was tremendous,” Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, head of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, said in a press briefing on Sunday. “There wasn’t a lot of time” for sailors to react.

    Badly injured, the captain, Bryce Benson, escaped from his cabin. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital where he was receiving emergency treatment on Sunday before being questioned.

    “He’s lucky to be alive,” Vice Adm. Aucoin said.

    The question of why a U.S. destroyer was rammed by a cargo ship over three times its size, one of the worst incidents in recent U.S. Navy history, has no immediate answers.

    Some former military and commercial shipping captains speculate that the Fitzgerald may have failed to follow international regulations that require ships to give way to other vessels to their starboard, or right side.

    “Unless the destroyer lost steering control, which is unlikely, it should have given right of way to the container ship,” said Yiannis Sgouras, a retired captain of tankers and cargo ships who worked in the world’s busiest trade route from Asia to Europe.

    Others caution that there are potentially many other contributing factors to the collision. Tracking data sent by the cargo ship, the ACX Crystal, showed it reversed course around 2:05 a.m. local time, shortly before the time of the collision given by the U.S. Navy of approximately 2:20 a.m.

    However, Nippon Yusen K.K . , the Japanese shipping company that operates the 728-foot-long ACX Crystal, has stated that the collision occurred around 1:30 a.m. That discrepancy hasn’t been resolved.

    “She did not reverse the course before the collision. She did after the collision,” a Nippon Yusen company spokesman said.



    Both Japan and the U.S. are launching investigations, and each side declined to speculate about possible blame. The 20 Filipino crew members of the ACX Crystal, all of whom were unharmed, have been questioned, a spokesman for the Japan Coast Guard said.

    Around 400 vessels pass through the region where the collision took place, around 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka, each day, according to the Japanese Coast Guard. Official records show three accidents have been reported in the same area in the last five years.

    Collisions at sea for the U.S. Navy are extremely uncommon, said Bryan McGrath, a former destroyer captain, who said they occur only once or twice a decade, if that. He said he couldn’t remember a recent collision that was this consequential.

    “There are 275 ships in the Navy and 100 are under way all over the world,” navigating “millions and millions of miles” every year, said Mr. McGrath, who retired in 2008 and is now a consultant. “This is very, very rare.”

    Yoji Koda, a retired vice admiral and former commander in chief of Japan’s navy, said that when U.S. Navy vessels are in the vicinity of Japan their alert level is the same as civilian vessels. He said one possibility was that either or both of the ships in the latest collision were using an autopilot system for guidance.

    “Although they have watchmen, their responses tend to be delayed,” he said.

    Vice Adm. Aucoin said all questions about the cause of the incident would require the results of the investigation, adding that the U.S. would work “hand-in-hand” with Japan.

    Navy officials said they were working to inform family members of those killed, and had taken over 500 calls to a hotline for relatives to obtain information about the incident. One senior Navy official said all the crew of the ship were grieving.

    Vice Adm. Aucoin said that despite the extensive damage to the Fitzgerald, a ship equipped with an advanced Aegis ballistic missile defense system, it would be restored to the U.S. 7th Fleet. That process could take up to a year, he said.

    The repair process could cost around the same as the $250 million spent over 14 months on restoring the USS Cole, a similar ship to the Fitzgerald, which was heavily damaged by a terrorist bombing in Yemen in 2000.



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  29. #25
    Now, one thing based on that report above, while navy vessels are required to follow the COLREGS, they are not required to continuously broadcast their position via AIS (big brother tracking) like us Mundane's ships are.

    AIS positions are integrated into the navigation suite, and are critical to presenting accurate time, speed, closest point of approach and collision avoidance calculations.

    If the watch of the CSX Crystal was relying on AIS data instead of doing a manual radar plot and/or just keeping a close visual watch of range and bearing, that very well could have led to the collision as well.
    Last edited by Anti Federalist; 06-18-2017 at 09:24 AM.

  30. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Danke View Post
    You think that's bad, can you imagine being on a boat where AF is the skipper?
    You oughta sail with me some time...I could use a new cabin boy.


  31. #27
    Both vessels have VDR (data recorders) systems, and video surveillance systems.

    Won't be too hard to suss out what happened exactly and who said or did what to whom.

    Based on the AIS plot posted above, all you really need to know is what was the Fitz's heading at the time of collision?

    If it was NW - around 320 degrees or so, then the Crystal did reverse course prior to the collision.
    Last edited by Anti Federalist; 06-18-2017 at 09:58 AM.

  32. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by angelatc View Post
    That breaks my heart.
    It is a tragedy, especially for the families...hope I'm not coming off too flippant or clinical.

  33. #29
    nm - new posts howed up after I hit enter

  34. #30
    While the cause of the accident has yet to be determined, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said the ACX Crystal had made a sharp turn shortly before the collision.
    That's consistent with what I see on the AIS track.

    If I had to fathom a guess, I'm thinking that was an "oh $#@!", last minute effort to avoid collision.



    What this is showing me is that the Crystal was on a steady course and speed and if you look you see they made a radical turn to starboard...then resumed an unsteady course and then reversed course back to the scene of the collision. But the time stamps don't match up...but that is not unusual to have the time settings wrong.

    (And yes, I realize they are UTC)

    The clickbaiters and Interwebs are already howling about how they "rammed" them and that this was probably Philippine muslim ISIS terrorism.

    Shrugs...who knows?

    The VDR of the radio transmissions and pilothouse conversations will reveal what happened.
    Last edited by Anti Federalist; 06-18-2017 at 10:56 AM.

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