US sailors missing after collision off Japan

More than likely the ships were coming into a sea lane prior to coming into port (much like an onramp merging into a freeway). It was one of the most eye opening things when I first stood bridge watch, was how close some of these ships get... Huge ocean, small travel lanes. In this instance, not to arm chair Q-back, but I would expect that there was some kind of engineering casualty on the DDG while they were trying to cross. The merchants are big, slow and don't turn fast (sorry SN Greg Wright ). The sad thing is that there are 7 sailors dead.

LT Brad McInnis - Oh I have no emotional investment in the capabilities of merchant ships. Their mission is entirely different. So yeah, you're right -- much slower, much bigger, and with a much larger turn radius. I'm waiting for them to announce the exact position of the accident, and then I'll look at a chart to determine for myself whether or not they were in a traffic lane -- but, @ 56 miles from Yokosuka, I would be very surprised to find them in a shipping lane, though that's still possible if geography squeezed them. We'll see. As for the cause, I see only two real possibilities: the engineering casualty or an entire bridge team and an entire CiC team screwed the pooch.

SGM Steve Wettstein With 7 potential dead, I'm pretty sure there's going to be plenty of court martials, unless this was a catastrophic engineering casualty. In which case the Chief Engineer and his subordinates will be on the hook. So still likely.

LTC Orlando Illi As a former Naval Officer on a couple of ships just like this...There were 2 times that really scared me on a ship. One was watch turnover, and second was close maneuvering with other ships. This accident happened at 0230. Watch turnover is generally between 0145-0200, so you had a new watch section (bridge, combat and engineering) getting settled in. The 0200-0700 watch, which is the one on deck at the time of the incident, was my most hated. You never got adequate sleep before hand. Yes, there are a bunch of different watchstanders that are supposed to back each other up, but it is amazing how quickly things can turn to crap...

LT Brad McInnis - saw the same thing in Tactical Operations Centers (TOC) in the Gulf War < sleep = higher probability of something bad happening

SN Greg Wright - LTJG Richard Bruce I built and served on 2 of these in Engineering (DCA/CHENG). I haven't operated out there in Yoko, so I am not sure what the traffic patterns are, but I know that personally I have been in a few situations where it went to sh@t faster than I thought possible, while doing close maneuvering. If I had to hazard a guess, which I hate doing, I would point to an engineering casualty as they were crossing the bow of the merchant. That bulbous bow on the merchant did some serious damage below decks...

LT Brad McInnis - Maybe it's just too late at night, or I'm too into my beers, but I wouldn't be surprised if that nutjob Duterte 'encouraged' something like this. I'll fold up my tin foil hat in the light of day, but honestly, LT, given what you know about navigation and these ships' capabilities and sensors, can you think of an innocuous manner in which this happens? I can't. Something's up.

SN Greg Wright - Loss of propulsion while crossing the bow, not in max plant lineup... I have been in a number of close calls at sea. Close maneuvering has always scared me more than boarding drug running ships, or going into a full on fire.

Last time I was on the Inchon coming into NAB Little Creek, I got to observe on the bridge. I distinctly remember the navigator constantly calling out "closest points of approach on major vessels in the area, and instant bridge to bridge communications anytime a vessel had "constant bearing decreasing range."