Report: U.S. Navy vessel likely at fault in fatal collision with NYK containership

Two U.S. government officials said the crew of the USS Fitzgerald committed multiple mistakes and failed to take action leading up to a deadly collision with the NYK-operated ACX Crystal, according to a report from CNN.

   Initial findings by the United States Navy indicate that the crew of the USS Fitzgerald was primarily at fault during a fatal incident in which the naval warship collided with an NYK Line-operated containership, the ACX Crystal, according to a July 21 report from CNN.
   According to the cable TV news outlet, two U.S. government officials both said that the crew of the Navy vessel committed multiple mistakes and failed to take action in the minutes leading up to the collision.
   “They did nothing until the last second,” one official said of the the Fitzgerald’s crew, according to CNN. “A slew of things went wrong.”
   Seven American sailors were killed and three others severely injured as a result of the June 17 collision, which occurred around 2:30 am local time about 56 nautical miles off the coast of Honshu, Japan. There were no injuries on board ACX Crystal, nor any oil spill from the vessel, according to NYK.
   However, the U.S. Navy vessel, which is nearly four times smaller than the containership, suffered severe damage, which lead to flooding in multiple compartments.
   Built in 1993, the Fitzgerald is an 8,315-ton, 505-foot-long (154 meters) warship. The nine-year-old, Philippines-flagged ACX Crystal, which is owned by Dainichi-Invest Corp., has a gross tonnage of 29,000 tons, is 728 feet (222 meters) long and can carry a crew of 20 with a container capacity of 2,858 TEUs. The ship was operating on NYK’s ‘PX1’ (Phoenix 1) intra-Asia trade line linking Japan, Vietnam and Thailand ports at the time of the collision.
   According to the Navy, the collision affected the Fitzgerald’s forward starboard side above and below the water line, causing significant damage and associated flooding to two berthing spaces, a machinery space, and the radio room.
   However, the Navy appeared to downplay, if not outright dispute, the CNN report in a July 21 statement about the incident, noting that this initial investigation is just the beginning of what is expected to be a lengthy process.
   “We are in the early stages of the investigation process to develop a comprehensive picture of what caused the collision and do not have any definitive information to release. It is premature to speculate on causation or any other issues,” U.S. Navy Chief of Information, Rear Adm. Dawn Cutler said in the statement. “Once we have a detailed understanding of the facts and circumstances, we will share those findings with the Fitzgerald families, our Congressional oversight committees and the general public.”
   According to tracking data from the Automatic Identification System, the ACX Crystal was being controlled by a computerized navigation system at the time of the collision, the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet has confirmed. The possibility of the system having malfunctioned is one of the issues factoring into the investigation.