USS John S McCain Collision

The USS John S McCain a Guided Missile Destroyer was in collision east of Singapore in the Straight of Malacca.
Search and rescue is underway, with 10 sailors missing and 5 injured as currently reported.
Collision was with a commercial merchant ship named Alnic MC, which I believed is a Liberian flagged vessel.
Reports indicate John S. McCain sustained damage to her port side aft, and that a search and rescue mission was already underway.

The ship is currently sailing under its own power and heading to port, according to a Navy statement.

It is named after Senator McCain's Grand Father and his Father.

I believe this is the 4th collision of a 7th fleet vessel this year in this general area.

Prayers that the missing are found alive.

Charlie-Painter777

According to preliminary reports, the USS McCain was struck in the port side aft by an oiler. If so the oiler should have been the "give way" vessel according to the Rules of the Road.
According to reports, ten sailors are missing.

That is terrible news but what I find most disturbing is that this happened again.

A ship that is an advanced radar guided missile destroyer with the latest surveillance type radars and they keep colliding with these huge cargo vessels.
I also hope for the best with the sailors that are missing
Semper Fi
Phil

10 sailors from the destroyer missing so far, there is something lacking here how a fast vessel can be run over by a lumbering giant....................!

Terrible business. Let's all hope the missing are all found soon.

Unfortunately the chance's of finding them alive is looking increasingly unlikely...

Being no sailor, I really can't understand how such things can happen.
It is beyond my understanding, given the high-tech installed on any such vessel.
In any case, now the only thing to do is to pray for the missing sailors and for their families.
May God be with them!

Als onot a sailor but with four collisions in the Western Pacific since the beginning of the year I think this has moved above the ship's captain level and to the operational management level.

Bob

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Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Als onot a sailor but with four collisions in the Western Pacific since the beginning of the year I think this has moved above the ship's captain level and to the operational management level.

Bob

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Fleet wide training as well as command, the bright spot with the Fitzgerald was the core group of senior Petty Officers apparently rallied the crew in various areas to save personnel and perform damage control to save the ship. IMO the previous administration systematically stripped the readiness and ability of our military with the intention that failures would occur. You don't hear about these incident with other navies are they occurring and we are just not being informed or have we slipped that far?

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Originally Posted by Sarge1998

You don't hear about these incident with other navies

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We had a couple over the past years, I think everyone heard about them though...

In the high profile incidents in recent months involving collisions of U.S. Navy ships in which there has been loss of life and serious damage to ship we should give credit to the professional way that the ordinary American sailor has acted to save their ship.

Most if not all navies around the world have had "incidents" over the years that they would rather had not happened and would prefer to forget. Because the U.S. Navy is significantly larger than say the Royal Navy, statistically, the U.S. Navy is likely to have more such "incidents" than the Royal Navy or other smaller navies.

We will be pretty right here with our miniscule fleet, once however we did have an aircraft carrier that really did manage to run over a couple of destroyers (USS Voyager & USS Evans) sadly in both instances with heavy loss of life in fact when she was being towed to the scrap yard she broke her tow and was a real dandy of a thing to get re-attached wandering all over the place, showing perhaps greater forces were at work aboard her :confused:

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Originally Posted by Sarge1998

Fleet wide training as well as command

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Originally Posted by Sarge1998

previous administration systematically stripped the readiness and ability of our military

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Big funding cuts Pre-Jan 2018 had to of affected Training (fewer hours), Personnel Readiness and Maintenance Abilities and etc.
I think about our planes having borrowed parts from other planes to fly. Face it the parts bins are empty.
Very possible our ships are in need also.
Are we now getting a taste of our ships and those trained to operate them, starting to experience the troubles the pilots have been having?

I don't know, but it surely has it's own day to day deadly hazards. I hope whats being reported as better funding helps the current situation.

Again I pray for these souls and their loved ones....... God Bless

Charlie-P777

Too much reliance on old technology, instead of the MK1 eyeball :rolleyes:

I'll put money that at least one of these was caused by someone in the naval vessel playing silly buggers and getting it wrong.

While not a naval vessel, 15 years or so ago i was flying with a friend and we had a supersonic F1-11 cut across out path at right angles about 150m in front of us. (brown shorts moment) My friend had all of his id beacons etc on and had made all of his radio calls so the pilot knew exactly where we were, he was just having fun.

Easy to apportion armchair critism, and knowing how busy that stretch of the Malacca Straits is, but putting all that aside, it is highly embarassing when a "state of the art" Military anything cocks up due to a lack of professionalism for a fleeting moment.

As the Straits are so conjested, one has to believe look outs were posted. Not just for the numerous amount of really massive cargo ships using the waterway and avoiding their paths, but also the very high likelihood of pirates or terrorists targeting all vessels using it. This photo shows just how far the dome bow breaker entered the port side of the ship, and the most likely cause of death to so many young lives. It must have lifted and tossed the ship 180 degrees with so much force on impact.
Thoughts are with the families, friends and colleagues at this time RIP

Makes you wonder how the subs get on its ok if they have the depth of water under their keel but not in the shallows still they are the silent service.

:lol::lol:only when they hit a sandbank when the tides going out it becomes an embarassment, especially if the skipper is in the shower, trusting a nuclear sub to one of his "trained" subordinates to drive the boat

£1bn nuclear sub hit a sandbank as commander was in the shower | Daily Mail Online

Now I just read an article speculating that there might be hackers behind the many accidents of these last months........

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Originally Posted by Ovidio

Now I just read an article speculating that there might be hackers behind the many accidents of these last months........

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Regardless of whether or not that is the case here, I feel my country is woefully unprepared for the future as far as "electronic warfare" is concerned. We have no idea what China or 'lil Kim have up their sleeves. Oh, I'm sure there are people in power who think they know...

Russ

Sadly, like many on this website, who have served in the Military, there is no room for complacency when you are in charge of other peoples lives in operational theatres, whether at Land, Air or Sea.
What this ramming incident shows is exactly that, a sheer lack of judgement and a lacksy daisy atitude to their respective roll in the command chain, in protecting your men first and ship second.
Those who allowed "slack" procedures to be present in any operational role need to be held to account, which I am sure they will.

What is important is that the damage was mitigated by the brave actions of the crew and the ship was saved. It must have been terrifying for the young junior ratings below decks at their work stations or asleep, at the time of impact and without warning, for their ship to receive this much damage. Then to have some compartments suddenly plunge into darkness and to be hit by a wall of water. Every American should be proud of those sailors who fought below decks, in extreme danger, to save their ship. It is sad that there has been loss of life but it could have been much worse.

One thing that seems to be relevant to me is what the heck was the radar room doing with plotting vessels surely they do not operate on a 9-5 basis hoping the enemy will do the same there is no way known that they did not have that tanker on the plotting charts and if they did then someone needs to face the long drop into a cell.
Unless they only go on what systems they have in the bridge but I cannot see that happening after all it is a ship of war and that lil bloke up North is keeping the whole world on tender hooks at present..................

One question I have does the military there have accidental death policies other than death by the enemy so at least there is some compensation for the families in both cases as it would be a fairly poor show if they did not give these poor sailors families recompense for their loss.

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

One thing that seems to be relevant to me is what the heck was the radar room doing with plotting vessels surely they do not operate on a 9-5 basis hoping the enemy will do the same there is no way known that they did not have that tanker on the plotting charts and if they did then someone needs to face the long drop into a cell.
Unless they only go on what systems they have in the bridge but I cannot see that happening after all it is a ship of war and that lil bloke up North is keeping the whole world on tender hooks at present..................

One question I have does the military there have accidental death policies other than death by the enemy so at least there is some compensation for the families in both cases as it would be a fairly poor show if they did not give these poor sailors families recompense for their loss.

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The US military will pay out the insurance the sailor carried through SGLI up to $400,000.