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The Fourth US Navy Collision of the Year Was Ultimately Caused By UI Confusion (arstechnica.com)
Yesterday, the U.S. Navy issued its report on the collisions of the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain this summer, which was the fourth U.S. Navy collision this year. "The Navy's investigation found that both collisions were avoidable accidents," reports Ars Technica. "And in the case of the USS McCain, the accident was in part caused by an error made in switching which control console on the ship's bridge had steering control. While the report lays the blame on training, the user interface for the bridge's central navigation control systems certainly played a role." From the report: According to the report, at 5:19am local time, the commanding officer of the McCain, Commander Alfredo J. Sanchez, "noticed the Helmsman (the watchstander steering the ship) having difficulty maintaining course while also adjusting the throttles for speed control." Sanchez ordered the watch team to split the responsibilities for steering and speed control, shifting control of the throttle to another watchstander's station -- the lee helm, immediately to the right (starboard) of the Helmsman's position at the Ship's Control Console. While the Ship's Control Console has a wheel for manual steering, both steering and throttle can be controlled with trackballs, with the adjustments showing up on the screens for each station. However, instead of switching just throttle control to the Lee Helm station, the Helmsman accidentally switched all control to the Lee Helm station. When that happened, the ship's rudder automatically moved to its default position (amidships, or on center line of the ship). The helmsman had been steering slightly to the right to keep the ship on course in the currents of the Singapore Strait, but the adjustment meant the ship started drifting off course.
At this point, everyone on the bridge thought there had been a loss of steering. In the commotion that ensued, the commanding officer and bridge crew lost track of what was going on around them. Sanchez ordered the engines slowed, but the lee helmsman only slowed the port (left) throttle, because the throttle controls on-screen were not "ganged" (linked) at the time as the result of the switch-over of control. The ship continued to turn uncontrolled to port -- putting the ship on a collision course with the Liberian-flagged chemical carrier Alnic MC.
At this point, everyone on the bridge thought there had been a loss of steering. In the commotion that ensued, the commanding officer and bridge crew lost track of what was going on around them. Sanchez ordered the engines slowed, but the lee helmsman only slowed the port (left) throttle, because the throttle controls on-screen were not "ganged" (linked) at the time as the result of the switch-over of control. The ship continued to turn uncontrolled to port -- putting the ship on a collision course with the Liberian-flagged chemical carrier Alnic MC.
No it's a scam investigation, they don't want to admit the US Navy is forcing right of passage always demanding all other ships move and even trying it with light house. They are trying to slime out of it buy relying on gullibility and the typical mug punter association with driving a car, how soon they see the car and how much time they have for evasive action. Shh, but this a two bloody large ships and you have minutes for evasive action and with radar basically a whole lot longer than that to establish a safe course. Basically right up until the end, with the US navy waving it's dicks about trying to force the other ship to alter course regardless of international maritime law and then and only then, when they visibly new the other ship would not be able to take sufficient evasive action, did they in a panic attempt to alter course and failed, through incompetence upon a course set by swollen testicles and an erection.
I don't know how idiots run a Navy but logic would demand a constant state of training, I would expect naval vessel to see and not be seen. Run courses to target and identify every ship they come across as training and to strive to not been seen ie shadowing patterns, this again as training. I would expect that the crew at all times keep full control of their vessel and that it would be impossible for any merchant vessel to ram them no matter how hard that merchant vessel tried.
The final failure was steering but what led to that point was not, that was a purposeful exercise by the US Navy to force big dick authority upon all merchant vessels. Maybe the captain was too busy in his cabin having some getting off time during the stupid manoeuvre.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen