Two collisions between Navy destroyers and commercial vessels in the Western Pacific earlier this year were “avoidable” and the result of a string of crew and basic navigational errors, the Navy’s top officer said in reports made public on Wednesday.
In two harrowing reports that told of missed warnings, chains of errors and frantic American sailors fighting to save their fellow shipmates, the Navy determined that both fatal collisions could have been prevented. Seven sailors were killed in June when the destroyer Fitzgerald collided with a container ship near Japan. The collision in August of the John S. McCain — another destroyer, one named after Senator John McCain’s father and grandfather — and an oil tanker while approaching Singapore left 10 sailors dead.
In the case of the Fitzgerald, the Navy determined in its latest reports that the crew and leadership on board failed to plan for safety, to adhere to sound navigation practices, to carry out basic watch practices and to respond effectively in a crisis.
“Many of the decisions made that led to this incident were the result of poor judgment and decision making of the commanding officer,” the report concluded. “The crew was unprepared for the situation in which they found themselves through a lack of preparation, ineffective command and control, and deficiencies in training and preparations for navigation.”
In the case of the John S. McCain, the investigation concluded that the collision resulted from a “loss of situational awareness” while responding to mistakes in the operation of the ship’s steering and propulsion system while in highly trafficked waters.
“The collisions were avoidable,” Adm. John M. Richardson, the chief of naval operations, said in a summary of the reports, released by the Navy on Wednesday morning.
The release of the reports came a day after the Navy held closed-door briefings for lawmakers on Capitol Hill and sent officers crisscrossing the country to brief family members of the sailors killed. A broader review of the Seventh Fleet’s pace of operations, training, equipment and maintenance is to be released on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pointed to the automatic budget cuts on the Pentagon since 2013, known as sequestration, as one of the primary culprits behind the combined 17 deaths aboard the two destroyers.
“We’ve deprived them of the funds to do it,” Mr. McCain said of the continuous operations in the Pacific. “We’re putting those men and women in harm’s way to be wounded or killed because we refuse to give them the sufficient training and equipment and readiness. It’s a failure of Congress. It’s on us.”
Already the fallout from the two crashes, as well as two others in the western Pacific this year, has been significant.
The commander of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet took early retirement, while the former commander of the Seventh Fleet, based in Japan and the Navy’s largest overseas, was removed in connection with the accidents.
Several other senior officers as well as the commanding officers of the Fitzgerald and John S. McCain have also been relieved of their duties.
Even before the report, urgent new orders went out in early September for Navy warships.
The directives included more sleep and no more than 100-hour workweeks for sailors. Ships steaming in crowded waters were ordered to broadcast their positions. And ships whose crews lack basic seamanship certification will probably stay in port until the problems are fixed.
Did you subscribe for our daily newsletter?
It’s Free! Click here to Subscribe!
Source: The New York Times
