Having spent some time on a container ship larger than this one, the USNS Stephen W. Pless, I can understand some of the stuff being said. Our ship was a bit larger than the one that hit the Fitzgerald, but if it were fully loaded down as the Crystal was, and on auto pilot, I could easily see where they wouldn't have necessarily noticed they'd hit something. If you look at the track, I suspect they hit the Fitzgerald at the point where the track makes a sharp 90° to the right. Shearing off to gain control would make sense for the ship to move to the right, away from the collision, which all could have taken place via the auto-pilot. They would have felt the shudder when they hit, but for all they knew, they'd hit a large bit of flotsam and the auto-pilot dealt with it.

The ship I was on only had 28 crew members (I wasn't a crew member, I was part of the maintenance crew for the USMC and had no shipboard duties unless there was a fire). A lot of ships have even fewer crew members and it's common to let the AP drive the ship (also more economical).

I still don't understand how the Fitzgerald let them get anywhere near them, hopefully we hear how that happened, but I'm not holding my breath.

The truth is buried deep and is certainly not the fairy story were being given.
I doubt we'll ever know what really happened.

Based on the track of the container ship, I think there is only one logical explanation.

Aloha snackbar?

So who is holding this back from us? Trump or Deep State?

I can buy any number of possibilities for the container ship going astray... The hacking job hit an "ah HAH!" button in me. Sometimes complicated conspiracy theories are interesting for thinking through the hows, whether reality or not...

But -nothing- comes close to satisfying my disbelief at one of our high tech destroyers getting rammed by a container ship.
The simplest explanation is a couple of fellows asleep at the watch or deep in a game of rummy- but no freaking way. There are alarms for that.
I remember having contacts at 25,000 meters, and we would plot their courses for awhile even at that distance if they were receding contacts. Approaching contacts were plotted, planned around, contingency factors worked out... It was a big deal to have ships approach us. Sonar folks were HOPPING busy keeping the OOW up to date on speed and heading.
I spent my time in the engineering spaces, not steering/control, and there were 7 of us (at the very least) on watch in engineering at all times at sea. I wasn't on a destroyer, and I am sure that being in a busy sea lane makes a difference too.
I can picture a container ship having a rogue crew member or being hacked... I can't picture either of those things on our destroyer.

Why are they not telling us. Were the radar systems of the Fitzgerald being jammed.

Russian cyber weapon
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... bf4f53651a

Russian satellite weapon
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/21/politics/ ... index.html

Russian jamming
http://yournewswire.com/russia-raises-s ... nato-jets/

Maybe this is miss information
Intercept attempt fails in missile defense test off Hawaii
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/06/22/in ... awaii.html

Many ECDIS systems are connected to the internet via cellular or satellite systems to facilitate chart updates and product patches. Depending on ships IT infrastructure security could vary.

I find it pretty far fetched especially considering that most Inmarsat/Iridium/etc. client IPs are in a private IP space i.e. not routeable and these providers often have firewall rules in place only allowing specific types of traffic unless specifically requested by the customer to open it up.

More likely for someone aboard to have done it, if it was intentional.

I think I was too vague in my previous post...

I cannot believe that a USN destroyer would just "let" a container ship hit them because they were too busy PMing the insides of their eyelids. The only explanation I've seen that makes sense is that the container ship misled the Fitz (intentionally or through incredible negligence) with its course corrections and by the time it was clear many mistakes were made, the collision was a fait accompli. I think we all understand these vessels don't turn and swerve like a Porsche 911.