Sunday, August 20, 2017

USS John S. McCain Collides With Oil Tanker Near Strait of Malacca. At Least 10 U.S. Sailors Are Missing

Jan. 26, 2003 -- The guided missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) approaches the Kitty Hawk during a replenishment at sea (RAS). An RAS is the method by which ammunition fuel is transferred from one ship to another while at sea. The technique enables a fleet or naval formation to remain at sea for prolonged periods of time. Kitty Hawk is the Navy’s only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier and operates out of Yokosuka, Japan. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Todd Frantom. Wikipedia

WNU Editor: This is a breaking news story. Updates will be posted when more news becomes available.



ABC News Online: USS John McCain collides with merchant ship east of Singapore, US Navy says

A guided-missile destroyer has collided with a merchant ship in waters east of Singapore and the Straits of Malacca, the US Navy says.

The Navy's 7th fleet said the USS John McCain sustained damage on its port side from the collision with the Alnic MC on Monday at 5:24am (local time).

Search and rescue efforts were underway in coordination with local authorities.

There were no initial reports of injuries.

"The ship was transiting to a routine port visit in Singapore," the Navy said in a statement.

It is the second collision involving a navy ship in the Pacific in two months.

Read more ....

More News On The USS John S. McCain Colliding With An Oil Tanker

UPDATED: USS John McCain Collides with Merchant Tanker in the South China Sea; Ship Underway on its own Power
-- USNI News
US Navy ship collides with oil tanker off Singapore -- BBC
U.S. Navy says USS John S. McCain sailing to port under own power -- Reuters
U.S. Navy destroyer USS John S. McCain collides with merchant ship -- CBS
USS John McCain collides with merchant ship near Singapore; search and rescue underway -- ABC News
USS McCain collides with merchant vessel -- The Hill
USS John McCain collides with merchant vessel; search and rescue underway -- WAVY
USS John S. McCain collides with merchant ship in Pacific -- FOX News
Search and rescue underway after USS John S. McCain collides with merchant ship -- CNBC
US destroyer collides with merchant ship near Singapore -- CNN
US destroyer USS John S McCain damaged after collision with oil tanker -- The Guardian

UPDATE: At least ten sailors are missing .... US WARSHIP COLLIDES WITH TANKER NEAR SINGAPORE; 10 MISSING (AP)

Update #2: It looks bad .... BREAKING: The crew of the destroyer John S. McCain is fighting flooding in two crew berthings and in what's called "shaft alley." (Link here)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another collisions in asia????? Coincidence or just bad training?

Unknown said...

This is Pac Fleet not Lant Fleet. There is literally almost 2 navies.

Maybe Pac Fleet's certification system is off.

A ship's captain one time got relieved for 'flying' his ship thru the Malacca Straight. it was more like he was flying an airplane than using the tools and methods of the ship.

The captains of the surface ships obviously were not flying their ships as an aviator.

I do know around Singapore there at one Hell of a lot of small islands. It really does not show up on your home atlas.

I wonder if piloting a ship is becoming as hard as a carrier landing. The density of the shipping may have changed over the decades.

At any rate his fault or not his fault the captain is going to get relieved. that is what I said in my 1st post of for the last incident.

In history Admiral Nimitz ran his ship aground when he was a young officer. Story is that he got out a cot and went to sleep.

Anonymous said...

Chinese messing with GPS systems? Maybe not with USN systems. Could be screwing with merchant systems. Could explain the crazy course of the freighter that hit Fitzgerald. I'd say two collisions with USN ships in such a short time span, in the same region, is likely not coincidence.

Anonymous said...

I hate to use a cheesy analogy but it's a lot like the Top Gun theory, retraining the art of dog fighting, while in the case of USN/USCG the art of "skippering" a vessel or more directly the art of being a mariner has all but vanished from their ranks. My experience has been more with smaller boats, boarding parties and witnessing docking attempts...so embarrassing, they may have read the books and passed the tests, but real world boat handling skills that come from time on the water can't be found in a book, you can't learn how to be a mariner through books...who the fuck is on watch in these incidents, there should be redundancies on top of redundancies in the bridge of these ships, if the fishing boats can do it 7/24 with little to no sleep and only limited schooling why can't these most advanced ships ever to sail the sea handle the basic task of wheel watch.

fazman said...

China should forget about anti ship missiles, all they need to do is fill the waters with tankers, cargo ships, and fishing boats.
Unprofessional, and once again the poor brave sailors pay the ultimate price.

RussInSoCal said...

?Anonymous Anonymous said...
Another collisions in asia????? Coincidence or just bad training?"

A wise old ship's captain once said - regarding serious screw ups - to a captive audience, "Once is an accident, twice is a pattern. Now I'm waiting for the third."

There's now a fleet-wide problem with bulk carriers smashing into US warships. And I think a good question to ask is whether these merchantmen are are directly targeting US warships. But even then, no excuses. An honest comparison would be a semi-truck chasing down a sports car. It just just shouldn't happen.


HOLD,
FAST,

R