USS John S. McCain collides with merchant ship in Pacific

[Riley]

Heads are starting to roll. The 3 star in Japan, Aucoin is headed home it appears.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/201...l-after-deadly-warship-crashes/9651503467007/

Now then, since he was already scheduled to retire in a few weeks it's a bit of symbolic kick in the rear on the way out the door. I guess it's something...

 

[Riley]

1 confirmed dead. 9 still missing....

https://www.redstate.com/prevaila/2...-1-dead-9-missing-sailors-uss-john-s.-mccain/

Personally doubting they'll be recovered alive at this point. Even with the equatorial water temp in their favor the current through there has likely taken their toll. Prayers to the surviving families.

 

[KOPBET]

Seems like we always get the bad end of the stick in these collisions.

 

[dennishoddy]

the search for survivors has been called off.
Looking at the damage, could the missing have been on deck? Those compartments were smashed in, not torn apart. One body recovered on the ship, some remains of other found, but no bodies. Terrible situation.

 

[Riley]

Could have been. They were preparing to enter port later that morning. The hole on the Fitz under the water line ended up being 7 by 13 ft. So while it appears from the above waterline perspective the compartments have been stove in, like an ice burg, it's what you can't see that really makes up the problem.

I really hope they go after the training side of the house. They share a huge responsibility for the continued relaxing of qual standards and rigor of non-shipboard training environments. "Train like you fight" went out the window more than a decade ago. It's taken this long to see the results.

 

[Riley]

All remains recovered. Apparently a compartment that was challenging to access due to damage. At least there will be closure for the families.

 

[Riley]

A bit of info about the track and situation prior to and at the time of collision. This is the AIS track of the separation scheme and the movements of Alnic MC. The systems is AIS which is required for all merchants worldwide. We have the capability but can also opt to disable it for obvious reasons.

http://gcaptain.com/uss-john-s-mccain-collision-ais-animation-shows-tankers-track-during-collision/

At about second 45 slow it down to 1/4 speed and expand the window to full screen to separate out the three vessel clustered just entering the scheme from the north east. Alnic is the vessel closest to the middle of the scheme. At second 51 you see them veer to the south at just about 0 speed 1.4 kts. This is probably seconds till impact. Also note Alinc MC is being overtaken to port by Hundai Global going 16 kts at the time limiting their ability to turn away. So while we can't "see" what McCain is doing here we can see the outcome...

It's going to be tough to find a reasonable solution for the MCain's actions.

 

[MacFromOK]

Is it possible these collisions were intentional by the other vessels involved?

 

[Riley]

In my considered opinion, no. Rules of the nautical road place burden on all vessels to avoid collision.

What I think is this is the out come of the training side of the house saving 15 mil a year by closing schools 10 years ago. In hindsight, not a wise decision. In fact as a savings, the hundreds of millions in repair costs and loss of life over the last few years ought to be a significant slap in the face to those bean counters who thought it was such a great idea and the operators who failed to oppose it.

 

[MacFromOK]

In my considered opinion, no. Rules of the nautical road place burden on all vessels to avoid collision.

So the fault was at least shared by the other vessels then?

Not trying to be a wise guy, I just don't know.