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Volume V – Issue 2 A


t the start of the year, the world heard the terrible news that the Panamanian-flagged, Iranian-owned oil tanker


Sanchi, carrying a cargo of 136,000 tonnes of natural-gas condensate from Iran to South Korea, had collided with the Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship CF Crystal, 160 nautical miles off Shanghai, China. Thankfully, everyone aboard


CF Crystal was rescued. However Sanchi’s entire crew – made up of 30 Iranian and two Bangladeshi seafarers – are presumed dead. The financial cost of the incident


is believed to be worth in excess of $100m, and while the environmental consequences remain uncertain, they will, without any kind of doubt, be extreme and profound. The question that immediately


comes to mind is – how, in this day and age, can this kind of incident occur when there are sophisticated navigational systems onboard? In this issue, we publish an


accident report on a similar incident (see Troublespot on page 28). It examines how, one night last


summer, on a calm sea and under a bright moon, a United States Navy destroyer (154m-long and displac- ing 8,900 tonnes) collided with a Philippines-flagged container ship (223m-long and displacing 30,000 tonnes). Seven US sailors were killed in the incident and three others, including the commanding officer, were seriously injured. It’s a report that makes sobering reading. Extraordinarily, just two months


later, another US destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, (also 154m-long and displacing 8,900 tonnes) was involved in a similar collision with the merchant ship Alnic MC


(183m-long and displacing 30,000 tonnes) off the coast of Singapore, resulting in the deaths of ten US crew, with another five injured. The preliminary findings of that


accident report explain that both vessels failed to sound the required signals – or even use VHF. Organization aboard the warship


is severely criticized. Specifically, it states that the commanding officer (CO) didn’t set the Sea and Anchor watch, watchstanders had not attended the navigation brief, leadership failed to assign sufficient experienced officers, and the CO


issued unplanned orders which weren’t communicated to the watch officers who in their turn failed to provide input and back-up to the CO. How on earth does any crew


aboard a massive and expensive maritime asset fail to notice another massive and expensive maritime asset coming straight at them on an entirely predictable course? It now appears that during 2017,


there were more than 200 ship- wrecks around the world. Many, as you would expect, were caused by natural environmental conditions such as typhoons and hurricanes, but most, it seems, were caused by poor professional practice. All of these facts and findings


bring a further question to mind. Would Sanchi, for instance, have


collided with CF Crystal if either vessel had been remotely controlled, or semi-autonomous? Whatever the answer, all we


need to know is that, no matter what technology is being used, there will always be a need for clear and fully competent command.


Dennis O’Neill


Editor, The Marine Professional


03


Collisions


How does a crew fail to notice a massive maritime asset coming straight at them on an entirely predictable course?


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