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U.S. Navy destroyer collides with container ship near Japan, suffers damage

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  • U.S. Navy destroyer collides with container ship near Japan, suffers damage

    Oddly POTUS has not tweeted about this yet, or the fact that 7 USN crew are missing.




    TOKYO — Seven U.S. Navy sailors are missing off the coast of Japan after an Aegis guided missile destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, collided with a container ship early Saturday morning, causing significant damage and flooding.
    The destroyer’s commanding officer was evacuated from the ship by a Japanese Coast Guard helicopter and is now being treated at the U.S. naval hospital at Yokosuka, the home of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, said Commander Ronald Flanders of the U.S Naval Forces Japan.
    Other U.S. Navy vessels and Japanese Coast Guard cutters are at the scene, about 12 miles from the Izu peninsula and 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka, searching for the missing sailors.*
    The*Fitzgerald, which is more than 500 feet in length, collided with a fully loaded, Philippine-flagged container ship,*the ACX Crystal, at about 2:30 a.m. local time.
    The Crystal*is about 700 feet long and was bound for Tokyo before colliding with the Fitzgerald, according to a*maritime traffic tracking website.
    Local broadcaster NHK showed helicopter footage of the container ship with minor damage to its bow, while the Fitzgerald appeared to have significant damage both above and below the waterline. Pumps could be seen trying to bail water out from the Fitzgerald.
    It was not yet clear what caused the collision.
    “Right now, our efforts are on damage control,” Flanders said.
    It is unclear how the two massive vessels collided. There are extensive international guidelines for mitigating accidents on the ocean known as the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea or Colregs. The rules stipulate that ships have a watch posted at all times and follow a number of steps when crossing the path or overtaking another vessel to ensure they don’t hit

    The Fitzgerald is part of the same Yokosuka-based group that includes the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, but it was operating independently of the carrier when the collision happened, Flanders said.
    The USS Dewey, another destroyer, and two naval tugboats were at the scene

    The Fitzgerald is operating under its own power, but only at between one to three miles per hour.

    At full strength, the Fitzgerald usually has more than 250 crew members aboard and can reach speeds well over 30 miles per hour. It is unclear how fast the destroyer was going when it collided with the merchant ship.

    Gibbons-Neff reported from Washington.
    For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

  • #2


    Another photo of the damage.
    For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

    Comment


    • #3
      I assume they are pumps over the side

      Looks like burn marks as well?

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      • #4
        Yes you can see hoses being run into the door on the opposite side.
        Damage to the container ship tells an interesting story.
        For those not familiar with seafaring rules, keep right, pass left. Cross at 90 degrees, and pass to the rear of a crossing vessel, unless it is towing another vessel.
        AIS shows the container ship following a pretty routine course at 18kn when the colission happened.
        Last edited by na grohmiti; 17 June 2017, 09:28.
        For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

        Comment


        • #5
          If the container ship had a buldbous bow then there would be more damage underwater surely? Seeing online that that area is around one of the Engine room compartments, and that the CO was one of those airlifted off. I wonder given her age (25 years nearly) how much it will cost to restore her to service?

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          • #6
            USS Fitzgerald is in Drydock now, and reports are she is seriously damaged below the waterline. The bodies of the missing crew were located in a flooded compartment.

            by Tim Kelly (Reuters) The USS Fitzgerald came close to sinking or foundering after the collision with a container ship ripped a big gash under the warships waterline, the commander...

            USS Fitzgerald Pulls Into Drydock – Damage Said To Be Significant
            June 17, 2017 by Reuters
            by Tim Kelly (Reuters) The USS Fitzgerald came close to sinking or foundering after the collision with a container ship ripped a big gash under the warships waterline, the commander of the United States Navy’s Seventh Fleet said on Sunday.

            “The damage was significant. There was a big gash under the water,” Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin told a news conference at Yokosuka naval base. Desperate damage control efforts by the crew managed to save the ship, he said.
            The bodies of a number of sailors missing from the collision between USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) and a merchant ship on Saturday were found Sunday in flooded compartments aboard the guided missile destroyer.
            Aucoin declined to say how many were found. The search at sea, has been called off, he said.
            The Fitzgerald, he said, is salvageable, but that repairs will likely take months. “Hopefully less than a year. You will see the USS Fitzgerald back,” he said.
            Seven sailors were reported missing*and three injured after the guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided early on Saturday morning with a Philippine-flagged container ship south of Tokyo Bay in Japan, the U.S. Navy said.
            The*stricken*containership ACX Crystal is now moored at port in Tokyo Bay.
            © 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.
            USS Fitzgerald Sailors’ Remains Found
            June 17, 2017 by Reuters
            170617-N-XN177-120

            YOKOSUKA, Japan (June 17, 2017)Damage team sailors watch pier-side as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) returns to Fleet Activities (FLEACT) Yokosuka following a collision with a merchant vessel while operating southwest of Yokosuka, Japan. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Peter Burghart/Released)
            by Tim Kelly (Reuters)*The bodies of a number of sailors who were missing after the USS Fitzgerald, a U.S. Navy destroyer, collided with a container vessel were found in flooded compartments of the damaged ship, the U.S. Seventh Fleet said on Sunday.
            Japanese media said all seven of the sailors who had been reported missing were found dead.
            “Divers were able to access the space and found a number of bodies,” the Seventh Fleet said in a statement.

            It said in an earlier statement the sailors were being transferred to a U.S. naval hospital where they would be identified.
            “The families are being notified and being provided the support they need during this difficult time,” the Seventh Fleet said.
            The Fitzgerald, an Aegis guided missile destroyer, collided with the Philippine-flagged merchant vessel more than three times its size some 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka early on Saturday.
            Three people were medically evacuated to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Yokosuka after the collision, including the ship’s commanding officer, Commander Bryce Benson, who was reported to be in stable condition, the Navy said.
            The other two were being treated for lacerations and bruises, and others injured were being assessed aboard the ship.
            The USS Fitzgerald sailed into port on Saturday evening but search and rescue efforts by U.S. and Japanese aircraft and surface vessels had been continuing for the seven missing sailors, the Navy said.
            Benson took command of the Fitzgerald on May 13. He had previously commanded a minesweeper based in Sasebo in western Japan.
            It was unclear how the collision happened. “Once an investigation is complete then any legal issues can be addressed,” a spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet said.
            Japanese authorities were looking into the possibility of “endangerment of traffic caused by professional negligence”, Japanese media reported, but it was not clear whether that might apply to either or both of the vessels.
            The U.S. Navy said the collision happened at about 2:30 a.m. local time (1730 GMT Friday), while the Japanese Coast Guard said it took place at 1:30 a.m. local time.
            The Fitzgerald suffered damage on her starboard side above and below the waterline, causing “significant damage” and flooding to two berthing spaces and other areas of the ship, the Navy said.
            Japan’s Nippon Yusen KK (9101.T), which charters the container ship, ASX Crystal, said in a statement on Saturday it would “cooperate fully” with the Coast Guard’s investigation of the incident.
            At around 29,000 tons displacement, the ship dwarfs the 8,315-ton U.S. warship. It was carrying 1,080 containers from the port of Nagoya to Tokyo.
            None of the 20 crew members aboard the container ship, all Filipino, were injured, and the ship was not leaking oil, Nippon Yusen said. The ship arrived at Tokyo Bay later on Saturday.
            The waterways approaching Tokyo Bay are busy with commercial vessels sailing to and from Japan’s two biggest container ports in Tokyo and Yokohama.
            Reporting by Tim Kelly and Linda Sieg; Editing by Paul Tait,*© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved
            by Tim Kelly (Reuters) The bodies of a number of sailors who were missing after the USS Fitzgerald, a U.S. Navy destroyer, collided with a container vessel were found in flooded...
            Last edited by na grohmiti; 18 June 2017, 09:17.
            For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

            Comment


            • #7
              Sympathies to the bereaved. Taking the collision on your starboard side is not a good place to in when the inquiry comes around.

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              • #8
                There is – at this writing – a lot we do not know about how the destroyer USS Fitzgerald came to collide with a heavily-laden freighter in the waters off Japan in the middle of the night.


                On the sea there is a tradition older even than the traditions of the country itself and wiser in its age than this new custom. It is the tradition that with responsibility goes authority and with them both goes accountability."
                It continues: "It is cruel, this accountability of good and well-intentioned men. But the choice is that or an end of responsibility and finally as the cruel scene has taught, an end to the confidence and trust in the men who lead, for men will not long trust leaders who feel themselves beyond accountability for what they do.
                "And when men lose confidence and trust in those who lead, order disintegrates into chaos and purposeful ships into uncontrollable derelicts."

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                • #9


                  Thats a pretty severe list for a warship not damaged in combat.
                  For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by na grohmití View Post
                    Thats a pretty severe list for a warship not damaged in combat.
                    As I said that site would have been around one of the engine rooms and one of their Aux compartments along with the berthing compartment that was flooded out, we'll only see the full damage when she's drydocked.

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                    • #11
                      Perhaps its time the USN stops squashing all its crew into one accomodation compartment, in whatever space is left over after the weapons, machinery and fuel. It seems to forget that the post important element of a warship is its crew.
                      It seems the captains cabin was crushed in the crash.
                      For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Thats a pretty severe list for a warship not damaged in combat.
                        Akin to being torpedoed without the blast/

                        I would suggest they actually got away lightly as had the merchant vessels speed been greater she would have cut the destroyer in half.
                        Covid 19 is not over ....it's still very real..Hand Hygiene, Social Distancing and Masks.. keep safe

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                        • #13
                          Seven dead found in enlisted accomodation.

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                          • #14
                            Sympathies indeed but big questions about being asleep on the wheel, all that radar equipment and such a big vessel

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                            • #15
                              Here's an article on just how bad the damage is and work on the ship:
                              The collision off Japan that claimed the lives of seven sailors on the destroyer Fitzgerald punched a hole large enough to drive a tractor trailer through, leaving the Navy with the considerable task of putting the crippled destroyer back together again.

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