In June, a Philippines container ship collided with the destroyer in Japanese waters. The naval operations’ deputy chief officer named Admiral Bill Moran said that the commanding officer in the crew and the other two senior officers from the crew would not be serving the ship abroad anymore.
He also said that the department of the US Navy had literally lost confidence in their leading abilities and that they cannot be trusted by the US Navy forces any further.
The ACX crystal that was Filipino-flagged collided with the USS Fitzgerald. This happened in Tokyo Bay in mid-June.
It was a cause of a huge laceration below the destroyer’s water line and it flooded the lower side decks.
The US Navy sailors whose who died as a result of the collision were between 19 and 37 years old. Later on, they found them in the bunks when the divers got some access to those areas of the ship which were damaged and wrecked badly.
The damage inside the ship
The force of collision in the ship trapped the commanding officer in his own cabin. Five of the sailors were required to make use of a sledgehammer for breaking down the cabin’s door. According to one of the reports about the incident, even after the time when the door got opened, there was a lot of wreckage, furniture and other stuff against the door of the cabin that created a hindrance for the door to be opened.
It prevented anybody from getting into the room or exiting the room easily. It added up to the trouble for the Crew Members. A lighter damage was sustained to the port bow by the “ACX Crystal”. Among the members of the crew of the 20 Filipino, no injuries were found on board in the ship. The investigations continued for finding out the actual cause of that crash.
According to the rules of the maritime, the ships are supposed to give the right of way to vessels on the starboard side of the ships. That is the point where the damage was sustained by the destroyer. It sparked the questions that the ship might have been at fault.
Investigation continued:
The Marine Traffic of the US Navy compared the USS Fitzgerald and the ACX Crystal.
The USS Fitzgerald weighed 8,900 tonnes and had a length of 154 meters. While the ACX Crystal weighed 29060 tonnes and it had a length of 223 meters.
They are taking all the measurements very thoroughly since it is a very critical matter and they have to find out what happened actually. The US Navy and other relevant departments are investigating the matter well.
