Quote:
Originally Posted by Platapus
My expert opinion: This was caused by a series of unrelated mistakes, any one of which might not have been a problem, but all together resulted in this bumping. I don't think there is a single cause of accidents like this.
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I agree, and have my own theory by now, after thinking about this incident for days.
I assume the Fitzgerald tracked the Crystal for a while, noticed current course and speed won't cause a problem, and maybe stopped tracking the ship for some reason (shifting attention, negligence, who knows) - then the autopilot of the Crystal adjusted course, unnoticed by the Fitzgerald, establishing collision course.
This, in combination with a missing or failing lookout (that is there 24/7) probably caused this accident, and killed 7 sailors.
But, let's see what the investigation team will come up with.
I usually hate too early speculations, but this seems rather plausible.