USS Fitzgerald

[painter777]

The guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald in a collision with a Philippine-flagged container ship.
Damage was on the Starboard side. She could have foundered, or even sunk, but for the crew's desperate efforts to save the ship.
Maritime rules suggest vessels are supposed to give way to ships on their starboard.
USS Fitzgerald 8,315-ton vs. Container Ship 29,000 tons carrying 1,080 containers.

7 souls lost, RIP.

How could this happen?

Information

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[Eaglelord17]

Many factors could be at play. Some which I have heard suggested (not definitive, but possibilities) are having the tracking signature turned off, the fact that this ships signature would turn up much smaller than it actually is due to concealment technology, inadequate training for the officer of the watch, etc.

Hopefully there will be lessons learned which will help prevent tragedies like this.

[painter777]

Broad sided in the middle of the night. Imagine the confusion and panic. How they kept her afloat is amazing. My Daughter served in the Navy. Through her I met so many, so young and spirited.
I really feel for the Families of those lost.
Just tragic.

CH-P777

[RASelkirk]

Call me a skeptic, my thoughts are it was somehow intentional. Maybe 'Lil Kim assumed control of the merchant ship? I had heard the merch was doing some oddball maneuvering ahead of the hit. Nothing would make the "midget idjit" happier than seeing the US with egg on it's face...

Russ

[browningautorifle]

It does happen from time to time though, we had a couple do that over a few years too. One had a friend of mine working the engine room at the time of collision.

[Chainfire]

As a former sailor, my best guess is that some OOD, along with the rest of the duty watch and the old man, are in deep dodo.

How a small, fast, destroyer type can be hit by a lumbering merchant vessel is inexplicable unless the whole bridge watch was badly distracted or asleep.

[Aragorn243]

I have to agree with Chainfire on this one. The destroyer may have been a small target for the container ship but the destroyer should have known exactly where that container ship was and been able to avoid it. All the advanced radar and tracking on that ship seems to have been for nothing.

[Sarge1998]

The careers that will surely be ended will not bring back those lost by a failure in leadership. The Captain was asleep but he assigns or approves of the watch schedule, same goes for the XO, the OOD is also toast. This is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer with the Aegis Combat System, some form of negligence was present regardless who has the right-of-way, anything come within a 1,000 yards they should have taken that ship out of harm's way. God bless our Navy and all our armed forces, it's tough to lose good people when the means to detect and avoid are provided.

[painter777]

Surely they'd have some type of Alarm for any impending collision or the like.
Was any type of alarm or bell, whistle or what ever set off or pulled?
Why were sailors still asleep below deck?
Sounds like even the Commander was in his cabin which was destroyed.
Was he asleep also? Shouldn't he have been told about a close/near passing?
I wasn't Navy and don't know all procedures, but this all leads me to believe there was no on board warning that all aboard would/could hear.
He (Commander Benson) was injured and airlifted by a Japanese Coast Guard helicopter.
Some reports I read all vary on how long he commanded the Fitzgerald. Some say just since this past May (meaning just over a month~) Some say for a little more than one year.


My Daughter called me today with a Happy Fathers day greeting. I brought up this accident with her, to see if she knew anyone on the Fitzgerald, which was a negative, but did mention a fellow Corpsman who is on the Lake Champlain and had a collision last month.
I looked it up after the call to find this: May 2017 the 568 foot USS Lake Champlain a guided-missile cruiser hit a 60 to 70 foot South Korean fishing boat, near the Korean peninsula but no injuries were reported.

Conspiracy thought............. What if that Flagged South Korean fishing vessel was really a North Korean boat full of explosives...... aka a floating IED !

What the Hell is going on at this time that we are building up our Naval Forces for the Chinese and North Korean threats ?

Again Prayers for the families of those lost.

Charlie-Painter777

P.S. Want to add: With as busy as that water way is, I'd be lite up like the 4th of July letting every one know I was there.

[Aragorn243]

I read something to the effect that within Japanese waters, US Navy vessels operate the same as civilian ships. Not sure I read that right, not sure what it means but it seems to imply that combat radar, etc might have been turned off and the ship on auto pilot. If this is Navy procedure, may not be the crew at fault but higher command.