Safety video - Computer Generated reenactment of collision of frigate in Norway...

Yikes....Kudos to them for publishing their findings.

Hopefully the USN will do the same for the USS McCain and the USS Fitzgerald collisions.
 
Thanks for sharing.

Interesting the comment about having the deck lights on (and thus making it more difficult to identify as a vessel).

It's no secret that within the last decade or so, boaters have fallen in love with LED accent lighting in places all over our boats, but having those on while underway is technically illegal, even underwater lights.
 
I'm glad the Navy took that step. What I was hoping for was a version for public consumption similar to the original posting of this thread.
I imagine the Navy's training simulation (and similar products likely used in the investigations) may eventually be able to be accessed by the public. It would also seem to be an ideal project for one of the multitude of history shows out there.

There was a famous (at the time) incident involving HMAS Melbourne and USS Frank E. Evans which resulted in the loss of the U.S. destroyer. Melbourne was unlucky enough to have sunk two destroyers over her life, one U.S. and one Australian, neither her fault, but became to be known as "the Australian Can Opener". Anyway, the Navy produced a training film about the tragedy, available here, which was widely used in Navy training. Some of the same issues portrayed in the Norwegian simulation, like "confirmation bias", existed in the Melbourne-Evans incident.

Another Navy collision was between USS Belknap and USS John F. Kennedy. Among the causes was difficulty on the part of Belknap's bridge team in understanding the aspect of Kennedy based on her navigation lights. This was partially because of deck lighting in use (like the Norwegian tanker) and the placement of the forward masthead light on the carrier's island. Part of the solution was to add a forward mast to all carriers (known as the Belknap Pole) to ensure the running lights were clear and distinctive.
 
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Anyway, the Navy produced a training film about the tragedy, available here, which was widely used in Navy training.

Excellent film. But it does beg the question that after watching it.....how could the USS McCain and USS Fitzgerald collisions occur? Both had better technology, more accurate radar and the commercial ships had their AIS and navigational lights on.
 
Excellent film. But it does beg the question that after watching it.....how could the USS McCain and USS Fitzgerald collisions occur? Both had better technology, more accurate radar and the commercial ships had their AIS and navigational lights on.
Good question. Although there were a multitude of contributing causes noted in the investigations, it looks like to me it boils down to a de-emphasis on seamanship training, this in turn for a number of reasons like competing priorities for time and funding, over-commitment of ships to various missions, etc. The Navy is re-instituting seamanship training to try to address this.
I think it's true that the addition of new and better technology doesn't necessarily cure all ills. While the tools are extraordinarily helpful most of the time, I don't think there is any substitute for experience during a split-second crisis as happened in the original subject incident of this thread and the recent US Navy collisions.
 

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