USS Fitzgerald Collision

[MaDef]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Good point about the missing tracks of other ships in the area. Rules of the Road apply to two ships when meeting, crossing or overtaking each other. Provided both crews are situationally aware of their surroundings its relatively easy for two ships to stay out of the way of each other.

When you get three or more vessels in close proximity to each other it can be sometimes difficult to know the best course of action is to avoid a collision. Staying out of the way of one may put you in danger with another. The only options are to take early and substantial action by altering course, reduce speed or stopping. But whatever you choose your actions must be deliberate and made in such a way to be readily apparent to the other bridge. Pussy footing around making small incremental changes can cause a lot of problems.

The course changes of the containership appear to be pretty obvious. But like I said before, it may not be as readily apparent on a RADAR plot as one might think.

I know the Navigation radars are probably better than what I remember, but I do recall that it was pretty easy to lose a contact on the scope due to clutter even on a clear day going in and out of Norfolk.