USNavy Report on Fitzgerald Collision.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by hpeer

A competent executive needs to know WHAT his people need to do, who does know, and when to listen to them.

There are examples on all three points within these accidents.

Yep. Exactly.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

This is the radar picture referred to in several posts:


Attachment 222906


You can see Crystal's radar was badly tuned. Nevertheless, Fitz shows up clearly. What radar operator would leave the screen in that condition. I think they weren't watching it.

I agree the radar tuning is sloppy, but not significant.

Probably an old X band set to manual adjustment and left to harbor settings while the crew plied a familiar route in convoy with others.

Maybe the Captain told the crew not to play with it focus on looking out the window!

Like so many sailors there is a new weakness to, rely more on AIS than Radar.

If I remember correctly, it was a clear night with minimal weather, so Radar was not an issue.

What is obvious from both Radar screens is that there was definitely an East bound convoy of ships along that route, and the Fitz should have treated it as a Traffic Zone

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

Crystal had a poor watch. They claimed to only see Fitz's stbd running light, but vessel C reported seeing lights for a warship within the half-hour; in addition to that they made the assumption that a single green light was a "fishing vessel" (curious more hasn't been made of those watchkeepers' colreg competence?); their radar was horribly-tuned and they weren't tracking the vessels they turned towards; they made their planned course change before Wan Hai did (seen on Wan Hai's radar images in the Japanese report) - so they turned to close a slower vessel on their port beam.

Another tidbit from the Japanese report, that local mariners should have known - there's no fishing on Saturday, so not likely going to see a fishing vessel.

I agree Crystal had a weak watchkeeping standard which does not surprise me as they were I believe Filipinos including the Master.

Like so many of the Philippine training institutions, Marine Colleges do not instill a high standard of excellence in their methods... More about passing thru the highest numbers so that they can work overseas and feed their families.

But in those conditions of good visibility, they expected the smaller unidentified craft to take avoidance measures and they did light signal them their concern.

Agreed....not enough! but in this multilateral situation of a convoy, the Crystal crew just waited for Fitz to do the right thing. (Typical Filipino mindset)

My take on this is the combination of a "Weak Bridge" with a "USN Bridge" can be a lethal combination

[kmacdonald]

It wasn't an accident. The navy has already admitted that.

[Boat Guy]

Anyone else scratching their head when you learn what the taxpayers pay for military equipment thinking it's highly advanced "above our pay-grade" stuff...only to find out it's antiquated? Behind the curtain at OZ...

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

But in those conditions of good visibility, they expected the smaller unidentified craft to take avoidance measures and they did light signal them their concern.

They claimed to see only a green light so should have assumed a sailing vessel, but they thought it was a fishing vessel. Fishing or sailing, rule 18 would apply. No discussion about this at all.

Agreed....not enough! but in this multilateral situation of a convoy, the Crystal crew just waited for Fitz to do the right thing. (Typical Filipino mindset)

I disagree with the characterization that this was a "convoy." While there might have been some expectation that most vessels would be proceeding in a certain direction, it was hardly coordinated between them.

My take on this is the combination of a "Weak Bridge" with a "USN Bridge" can be a lethal combination

Spot on.