Seven US Sailors 'missing' after Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald collides with 21,000 ton cargo ship off the coast of Japan and starts taking on water

[SZonian]

Based on the cargo ship's track, it may be a deliberate attack on the USN.  Based on where the Fitz was hit, the cargo ship apparently took no evasive action, rammed the ship broadside.   
The ACX Crystal's course shows that it performed a rapid U-turn at speed and then turned to head back to Tokyo - at which point it collided with the USS Fitzgerald

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4612334/USS-Fitzgerald-involved-collision-merchant-vessel.html#ixzz4kHRqft9e

[Mod2]

Topics merged in World News category.

[truth_seeker]

Very sad.  In this technological age with advanced radar, communications,  and GPS , I just can't understand how anything like this can happen.

They are telling us that "self-driving" cars are right around the corner. "Don't worry, you'll be safe."

IOW It is not so much me, that I worry about. It is the other guy.

[Idiot]

It'll buff right out.....

[Oceander]

Based on the cargo ship's track, it may be a deliberate attack on the USN.  Based on where the Fitz was hit, the cargo ship apparently took no evasive action, rammed the ship broadside.   
The ACX Crystal's course shows that it performed a rapid U-turn at speed and then turned to head back to Tokyo - at which point it collided with the USS Fitzgerald

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4612334/USS-Fitzgerald-involved-collision-merchant-vessel.html#ixzz4kHRqft9e

To my untrained eye I agree that seems very fishy.  Hopefully we'll get news soon that clarifies what happened.

[truth_seeker]

The larger cargo ship is damaged at the bow, while the Navy vessel is damaged on the side (port, left). Hard to imagine fault by the Navy vessel.

[Suppressed]

Trump fired the ambassador to Japan and hasn't appointed a replacement over the past 5 months, to my knowledge.

[Oceander]

Trump fired the ambassador to Japan and hasn't appointed a replacement over the past 5 months, to my knowledge.

Could that be the reason?

/jk

[240B]

There is something going on here that we do not know. A hard right rudder 30degrees should have cleared this.


There are watches on deck, signal bridge with the big eyes, starboard forward, port forward, and astern. The ocean is vast. There is no freakin' way that you could 'run into' a ship unless you were trying to. And even so, the odds of actually hitting a ship at sea, you can't count the odds.


Something happened. We do not know what the story is.

[Suppressed]

Could that be the reason?

/jk

Just commenting that we don't have an ambassador in place, which can hamper the communications a bit.

[EC]

Does the damage on the container ship look wrong to anyone else? Not specifying yet, don't want my thoughts colouring others.

[catfish1957]

They are telling us that "self-driving" cars are right around the corner. "Don't worry, you'll be safe."

IOW It is not so much me, that I worry about. It is the other guy.

Good chance these will be the norm in our lifetime I guess.  I know I will be white knuckle status for at least a few years.  Probably pretty similar 100-120 years ago with our ancestors making the transition from horse to horseless carriage.

And btw, I agree......   We see enough glitches in computer driven devices now days, that I will never trust these cars 100%

[240B]

Scraping damage, that is not 'impact' damage. She could have got that very same type of damage running into a pier somewhere. Something, many things, are not adding up.

[Oceander]

Does the damage on the container ship look wrong to anyone else? Not specifying yet, don't want my thoughts colouring others.

Not dramatically, no.  Don't forget that the cargo ship has more than four times the mass of the destroyer.  And, by the looks of it, struck the destroyer with its anchor, which would have done a lot of damage to the destroyer without taking correlative damage itself. 

[catfish1957]

Something, many things, are not adding up.

Military is a highly rules, regulations, and systems driven organization.  I agree, this just doesn't pass the red faced test.

[driftdiver]

Does the damage on the container ship look wrong to anyone else? Not specifying yet, don't want my thoughts colouring others.

Container ship damage looks too high.

[Oceander]

Container ship damage looks too high.

That may just be because the photos are taken from different angles. 

[EC]

Yeah - It does look more like scraping damage. It does look too high. It also looks like the damage happened from above - all the damage above the anchor is folded downwards, and straight down at that, with no real side movement showing.

The only way I can visualize this (better pic of the damage to the Fitzgerald here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Fitzgerald#/media/File:170617-N-XN177-155_damaged_Arleigh_Burke-class_guided-missile_destroyer_USS_Fitzgerald_(DDG_62)_in_June_2017.JPG ) Is if the Fitzgerald was stopped completely and the container ship hit almost head on VERY slowly. 

[DB]

The larger cargo ship is damaged at the bow, while the Navy vessel is damaged on the side (Starboard, right). Hard to imagine fault by the Navy vessel.

The destroyer is very maneuverable with tons of navigation aids. The freighter not so much. The destroyer shouldn't have been within striking distance regardless if the freighter tried to hit the destroyer.

[NavyCanDo]

It's obvious where the missing sailors are....prayers

If you are meaning overboard, at 2:30am I would find it odd that that many sailors would be on the exposed deck. Unless there was a pre-collision alarm that had sailors scrambling for stations, or they were standing on deck watching this massive ship heading straight at them. Or maybe they are not in the water at all but trapped inside the twisted wreckage. In any event, prayers up, and also praying this was not intentional.

[240B]

The OS's would have had this guy on radar 15 miles out.


There is no such thing as 'running into' a Navy ship. Unless something else was going on.


We do not know what the story is. And we may never know.

[driftdiver]

The destroyer is very maneuverable with tons of navigation aids. The freighter not so much. The destroyer shouldn't have been within striking distance regardless if the freighter tried to hit the destroyer.

How much would the bow dip if the cargo ship tried to slow quickly?   I've read the sea there is very crowded.  Perhaps having other ships close was common.   The cargo ship is crewed by men from the Phillipines.   A place where ISIS is much more active now.

[EC]

How much would the bow dip if the cargo ship tried to slow quickly?   I've read the sea there is very crowded.  Perhaps having other ships close was common.   The cargo ship is crewed by men from the Phillipines.   A place where ISIS is much more active now.

Not much. Couple of feet, maybe.

I looked up the details for the ship type - Maersk E class container vessel - and it's just under 50 feet from the deck to the sea, fully laden.

The more I look at the damage to the container ship, the wronger it looks, but I can't pin down why. I'm used to looking at damage from a couple hundred feet up, too, so it's not the angle.

[driftdiver]

Not much. Couple of feet, maybe.

I looked up the details for the ship type - Maersk E class container vessel - and it's just under 50 feet from the deck to the sea, fully laden.

The more I look at the damage to the container ship, the wronger it looks, but I can't pin down why. I'm used to looking at damage from a couple hundred feet up, too, so it's not the angle.

Perhaps the ships rolled on impact.  That might explain why the rail is bent upward.

[Oceander]

Perhaps the ships rolled on impact.  That might explain why the rail is bent upward.

That, or the top of the rail struck the underside of part of the superstructure of the destroyer, which would have bent the railing back and down.

I looked at a picture of the undamaged ship and there is actually a protruding balcony right at the level of that light-colored hatch which protrudes out over the water.  In the picture of the damaged destroyer, that balcony appears to have been bent upward and in toward the main part of the superstructure.