BREAKING: Cargo ship captain who was arrested after crashing into an oil tanker off the east coast of England is a Russian national, the vessel's owner says
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Between European undersea cables and floating American gas stations, Russian sea captains are just clumsy. It’s totally not their fault, what with Western countries leaving these things all over the oceans where simple folk accidentally ram into them or drag their anchors through them. Oopsies!
Ship crashes into another ship carrying fuel for US military aircraft....
US military aircraft no doubt involved with the conflict in Ukraine
The conflict in Ukraine caused by the Russians
The Captain of the offending vessel is a Russian
As Sherlock Holmes would say-
'I hate coincidences'
So no one was on the bridge while a ship travelled 200 miles? No one watched the radar?
That makes zero sense and has less credibility. Only the last mile of travel is relevant, that’s the time when a simple small deflection would have avoided a collision.
I did. I am rejecting your premise. The number of things that had to go wrong “accidentally” is implausible.
The bridge should be manned at all times. Radar should have shown the object they were approaching. Alarms should have been going off.
Well I guess we’ll need to see what the investigation turns up. If the bridge wasn’t manned the Captain is screwed. If the bridge was manned but the radar was out he’s probably still screwed for not posting a fore watch. If the bridge was manned and the radar was working he’s screwed or worse.
That's a regular anchorage area for tankers waiting to unload at Immingham - the UK's largest port by tonnage. Why would anyone set autopilot to sail through that area?
Recall that in the Piper Alpha disaster operators continued pumping oil into a platform that was consumed by an inferno because of the losses that a shutdown in production would cause the company.
I agree that it seems weird to set autopilot in a straight line and not disable it (manually or automatically) before reaching the area where numerous ships are regularly anchored.
This is presumably why gross negligence is the baseline charge.
Not saying it is deliberate either of course, but there's obviously a lot of coincidences, so I'm very curious, as it doesn't seem possible to rule it out yet.
Stop the silly conspiratorial posts. Russians (and Ukrainians) are amongst the finest seafarers in the world. Solong is nearly 20 years old. Normal to operate a ship of that age. Anything could have happened. Steering failure, mechanical issues. Not the first time a ship at anchor has been rammed.
Unless both ships were navigating in something really narrow like the Panama Canal Zone, the Strait of Magellan, the Seto Inland Sea, the Sunda Strait, the Strait of Gibraltar, etc., this sounds deliberate.
When I heard that one of the ships was carrying jet fuel for the American military, my first thought was wondering of it could have been something to do with Russia, but then dismissed that as "conspiracy theory". Seems we're living in times when conspiracy theories aren't so crazy...
Comments
Ship crashes into another ship carrying fuel for US military aircraft....
US military aircraft no doubt involved with the conflict in Ukraine
The conflict in Ukraine caused by the Russians
The Captain of the offending vessel is a Russian
As Sherlock Holmes would say-
'I hate coincidences'
Just think of the environmental damage they’ve caused in the Ukraine war, for nothing
Trump:
Before the conspiracy people get here, there is simply no way anyone aimed a ship for a ramming attack at a range of 200 miles. None.
It's a negligent, horrible disaster, not malice.
All those people falling out of widows in Russian were also probably just negligent, horrible disasters. 😈
That makes zero sense and has less credibility. Only the last mile of travel is relevant, that’s the time when a simple small deflection would have avoided a collision.
The bridge should be manned at all times. Radar should have shown the object they were approaching. Alarms should have been going off.
Indeed it should be.
If course, that's scant comfort to the 80 killed when a MS Express Samina sank because the crew were watching football.
The US ship was at anchor. It was a stationary target. It would have had AIS. Simply mark the target as destination and autopilot does the rest.
I've not seen that mentioned anywhere, but yes that does sound unlikely to be deliberate if so.
1. Was the tanker already at anchor in that location at the time the autopilot was set?
2. How long do ships typically remain at anchor in that location?
3. Would there be definitely be a record of any adjustments to course made while autopilot was set?
Recall that in the Piper Alpha disaster operators continued pumping oil into a platform that was consumed by an inferno because of the losses that a shutdown in production would cause the company.
I agree that it seems weird to set autopilot in a straight line and not disable it (manually or automatically) before reaching the area where numerous ships are regularly anchored.
This is presumably why gross negligence is the baseline charge.
Quick video here.
Ships generally do all their sailing once clear of port on autopilot.
Solong seems to run a regular route back and forth from Grangemouth to Rotterdam smack through the outer Humber anchorage.
Ships do also have a black box, like an airliner.
1. The tanker was already anchored when the autopilot was set. Wouldn't you check AIS when setting autopilot?
2. Not uncommon to be there. Equally not the main anchorage.
3. Not covered.
Could well be accident but doesn't rule deliberate out? 🤷♂️
Well, isn’t that interesting? 🤔
Like those half a dozen incidents with underwater cables in Baltics.
Are you only supporting Musk and Zuckerberg? 🚫👎
Cargo ship captain, who was arrested after crashing into an oil tanker off the east coast of England, is a Russian national, the vessel's owner says.
#xavierworthy
This capitan should do what was advised to a russsian war ship some three years ago.