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.

[old tanker]

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.

It happened around 3 bells on the mid watch. You would think that seeing both green and red nav lights on the horizon at the same time would get a lookouts attention. Curious to see what the Board of Inquiry will say.

[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.

[Youngblood]

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.

That was my first thought upon reading about this collision. More specifically, "What happened to the tens of millions of dollars worth of tracking gear on that destroyer?!"