New information raises even more questions about collision of USS Fitzgerald with cargo ship

The captain of the cargo ship ACK Crystal, Ronald Advincula, said his ship had signaled with flashing lights to warn the USS Fitzgerald when it suddenly changed course to cross its path.

The Fitzgerald failed to respond to the warnings or take any evasive actions according to the captain's report. The collision took place in the early hours of June 17 south of Tokyo Bay off the Japanese coast. The weather was clear.

The crash killed seven sailors who were in their living quarters at the time of the collision. Apparently one sailor saved numerous others before he himself lost his life after an area had to be closed off to avoid the ship sinking.

Captain Advincula's report was submitted to the Daininchi Investment Corp. that owns the ship. He said when his ships warnings were ignored he steered hard to starboard but hit the Fitzgerald 10 minutes later at 1:30 AM. A Navy Times report notes that the time of the collision had been initially placed by the Navy at 2:20 AM local time. The US Navy has not commented on the new report. The Japanese Coast Guard also placed the time at 1:30 AM after interviewing the Crystal crew members.

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The vessel-tracking service Marine Traffic tracking the Crystal's route showed that it made a sudden turn as if attempting to avoid something around 1:30 AM. It then continued eastward until making a U turn and returning to the collision-area around 2:30 AM. There are several US, Japanese, and even Philippine investigations into the crash. The cargo ship is Philippine-flagged. There is still no explanation how the huge cargo ship got so close as to collide with the destroyer. The destroyer is equipped with very advanced systems to help protect it and there should have been observers on deck and also on the bridge who would have seen the oncoming cargo ship, as was described in a recent Digital Journal article. There were many speculative conspiracy theories after the crash. Some of the reasons for the speculations are discussed in this blog article but it was written before the testimony of the ACK Crystal's captain.

Lawrence Brennan , a retired Navy Captain who now teaches admiralty law at Fordham University said: “It’s virtually unprecedented. For two large ships, both operated by world-class shipping companies, to be in waters where they should expect traffic and not see each other, boggles the imagination." I suppose the US navy could be called a world-class shipping company!

The statement of Captain Advincula shows that his ship was not on automatic pilot when the collision occurred with no one awake to observe what was going to happen. Since the Crystal did not stop but went on eastward for some time afterward many concluded that it had simply been on auto-pilot. I had always wondered how the whole crew had simply slept through the crash and so the ship just carried on. It was nearly an hour before the Crystal reported the crash and returned to the collision site after making a U-half an hour after the crash. In his statement the captain claims there was "confusion" on the ship's bridge but that the ship turned around after continuing for 6 nautical miles. This explains nothing. How can one be confused when you have just had a disastrous collision with a destroyer that caused huge damage to it? It seems a clear case of deliberately leaving the scene of an accident and not reporting it until later and then returning to the scene.

There are six separate investigations into the crash. However, in another recent development the US has decided not to leave the Fitzgerald in the Japanese port, Yokosuka naval base, where it is now. It is going to return to the US for repairs. Once the warship leaves, the Japanese Coast Guard will be unable to assess the damage. The US says that it will continue to cooperate with the Japanese in sharing information including accounts of the crew members. This makes it sound as if only the US authorities will interview the crew members. The US will share whatever they choose to share about the crew's testimony. The Fitzgerald is so badly damaged it may have to be towed to the United States. The damage will need to be assessed first at a dock at the base. The cargo ship is run by major Japanese shipping firm Nippon Yusen K.K. We should know soon more about why the Fitzgerald did not see the cargo ship at least not in time to take any evasive action it would seem.

The Coast Guard is pursuing a charge of professional negligence according to the Japan Times. Presumably this is against Captain Advincula. The Fitzgerald had been sailing in the area to monitor North Korea's ballistic missiles. Yet it cannot monitor a huge cargo ship as it steams towards it. The appended video explains exactly nothing of course but it shows everyone pulling together to patriotic-sounding background music to help out the Fitzgerald crew.

Many questions remain about collision of USS Fitzgerald with a cargo ship

(June 24)There are still many questions as to how the U.S. destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald managed to be hit by the bow of a cargo vessel off the Japan coast.

 

The collision was deadly for the crew of the destroyer as seven sailors were killed and other crew members were injured.

So far know one really knows what happened to cause the collision and why it was not avoided. Official inquiries could take months or even longer. The U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard will both in time issue reports describing what happened and could very well make recommendations as to how such a collision could be avoided in the future. Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, commander of the 7th Fleet said: "I will not speculate on how long these investigations will last."

The $1.8 billion Fitzgerald is one of the most modern and technologically advanced warships in existence. However, most of the crew were probably asleep when the collision occurred around 2:50 AM local time. The sea in the area is often crowded with ships on their way in and out of Tokyo. Sailors in the Fitzgerald combat information area and on the bridge are responsible for using the ships' sensors to plot the location of other ships, as well as their speed and their direction. Officers and sailors in the information area must at all times keep good "situational awareness" about what their own ship is doing and also white might be in their path.

The damage to the cargo ship Crystal was on the left or port side of its bar. This suggests that it could have been traveling in the same direction as the Fitzgerald at the time of the crash. It could even have been trailing the destroyer. The crew of the Fitzgerald could have been watching what was ahead of them and not noticed that the Crystal was getting ever closer until it was too late.

Perhaps no one was on the bridge of the Crystal. Compared with Navy ships the huge ships often use autopilot especially in the wide open ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard has warned mariners of relying too much on autopilots after a series of accidents. The Fitzgerald almost certainly had sailors and officers on the bridge on what is called the overnight "midwatch". These were the watchstanders who would have made the critical decisions as to what to do before the collision.

The watchstanders may have been busy with an entire screen with many contacts and were too distracted to notice the Crystal bearing down on them. On the other hand, it might have been so quiet that the crew was bored and complacent. Investigators will need to review navigational data and there should be recordings of what happened on the bridge.

We do know that the ship's commanding officer Cmdr. Bryce Benson was in his cabin at the time of the collision. The cabin was on the starboard side of the ship that was crushed and as a result Benson was hurt and airlifted to shore by a Japanese Coast Guard helicopter. Sailors were berthed in compartments further below deck and were flooded by the Crystal bow. Two berthing compartments and one machinery space which housed the gas turbine for generating the ship's electricity were flooded with seawater. Aucoin noted: "Heroic efforts prevented the flooding from catastrophically spreading, which could have caused the ship to founder or sink. It could have been much worse." The Fitzgerald was barely able to make it into Tokyo under its own power with many of their instruments not functioning and only one of two propellers working. The ship will require millions of dollars in repairs before it can set out to sea again. Acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley said:"In due time, the United States Navy will fully investigate the cause of this tragedy and I ask all of you to keep the Fitzgerald families in your thoughts and prayers as we begin the task of answering the many questions before us." The collision happened about 65 miles off the coast of Japan.

A New York Times article notes that there should also have been lookouts on strategic locations of the destroyer who should have seen the oncoming Crystal a huge ship:There should have been lookouts on watch on the port, starboard and stern of the destroyer Fitzgerald — sailors scanning the horizon with binoculars and reporting by headsets to the destroyer’s bridge. At 1:30 a.m. last Saturday, off the coast of Japan south of Tokyo, they could hardly have failed to see the 730-foot freighter ACX Crystal, stacked with more than 1,000 containers, as it closed in.

The Crystal was apparently on auto-pilot and under control of a computerized navigation system when it struck the Fitzgerald it appears from tacking data. There were no crew members on duty in the pilot house when the cargo ship rammed the Fitzgerald. The Fitzgerald is equipped with AN/SP5-64 navigation radar and would have had a watch on the bridge. Cargo ships such as the Crystal are required to broadcast AIS location data. and this should have been monitored by the Fitzgerald crew.

What is even more amazing is that the Crystal did not stop after the collision:An analysis of that data by the private data analytics company Savi shows that the Crystal slowed down after the collision but continued sailing on its course for about 36 minutes, at which point it turned around and headed back to the collision site. The crash was officially reported at 2:20 a.m. local time, nearly an hour after the fact.Steffan Warkins, an information technology security consultant says that this shows that the ship must have been on autopilot when the crash happened. The Crystal radioed the Japanese Coast Guard almost half an hour after the accident showing that nobody was on the bridge at the time of the accident. However, one would think that at least some of the 20 crew members would be wakened by the force of the collision.

Given the many questions raised by the collision it is not surprising that there are numerous conspiracy theories. Some specifically blame North Korea for the collision but others are open suggesting that it may be a false flag operation as on the appended video which argues that crucial information is being withheld from us. The conspiracy chap is right about the time reporting.

UPDATE| Another article with further information can be read here.