Rescuers are searching for seven US Sailors thought to be lost at sea or trapped inside a damaged Navy destroyer which collided with a 29,000 ton cargo ship 56 miles off the coast of Japan Saturday.
The guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald suffered severe damage when the container ship ACX Crystal – which is four times the size of the naval vessel – plowed into it at 2.30am local time.
Aerial footage shows the crushed exterior of the 9,000 ton $1.5billion destroyer which is commanded by Commander Bryce Benson, who took over in May.
Japanese coast guard spokesman Yoshihito Nakamura said the rescuers are searching for the seamen who were thought to have been thrown into the sea or possibly trapped inside damaged sections of the destroyer. Two crew berthings and one engineering main space have been flooded.
Three aboard the destroyer were medically evacuated, including the ship’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Benson, who was reportedly in stable condition after being airlifted to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Yokosuka, the Navy said.
The other two injured were transferred to the hospital for lacerations and bruises, while other injuries were being assessed, it said.
Not a Navy guy, so maybe I’m missing something. How do two large ships, on the open sea, no doubt with radar (for night use), run into each other? I can see if they were re-supplying and were therefore side-by-side, but it isn’t like you crest a wave and suddenly say “Oh shit! A ship!”
I was stationed on a vessel that caused the decommissioning of the USS Robert Owens. It’s a bad feeling when your ship hits another ship when you are miles off shore.
I’ll be interested in what is learned during the investigation. Was weather an issue? Was there equipment failure? Were the vessels inside or outside a shipping channel? A collision at sea is definitely one heck of a way to wake up in the middle of the night.
Pics I’ve seen show damage to the right side of the destroyer and to the front left part of the bow on the freighter. Looks like the Fitzgerald got T-boned, with the freighter either hitting at a slight angle off 90 degrees or veering to the right at the last second.
Also looks like that to me. It must have happened at a very slow speed. BTW… Ships don’t do any maneuvering at the last second. The container ship probably needed a mile or more to stop and a 90 degree turn may take a square mile to complete.
I just can’t see how this could happen. Were both of them being jackasses and expecting the other ship to yield?
Can anyone with maritime experience fill us in on who has the right of way in this situation? Seems like the large ship would, but that’s is just a guess.
> When two power-driven vessels are crossing, the vessel which has the other on the starboard side must give way and avoid crossing ahead of her.
> A power-driven vessel must give way to:
a vessel not under command;
a vessel restricted in her ability to maneuver (this may include vessels towing one another;[19]
a vessel engaged in fishing;
a sailing vessel.
When I was on active duty we gave freighters a wide berth, especially at night. Freighters traveling at night are often on auto-pilot in the sea lanes and are slow to respond regardless of whether they are the give way or stand on vessel. Freighters also require a great deal of room to maneuver.
It will be interesting what the investigation reveals and the resulting ruling by a maritime board of inquiry.
Before venturing a guess concerning who’s at fault, it would be good to know, position and course of both vessels prior to closing on one another, weather conditions, if either vessel experienced equipment failure and if either or both vessels were maneuvering to avoid other maritime traffic.
With all the modern electronics and room full of radar techs, etc would seem totally implausible the US war ship not aware of that Freighter. Money is on human error, but what could possibly make sense they’d be that close?