In the past five years, the U.S. Navy has been studying how to reduce collision accidents during the navigation of surface ships .
In the summer of 2017, two Burke-class destroyers suffered serious collisions. On June 17, the destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship, killing seven crew members. Investigators found that the collision was caused by a puzzling course change by the destroyer . On August 21, the destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker in the Strait of Malacca, killing 10 crew members.
▲ On December 1, 2017, the "Burke" class destroyer "Fitzgerald", which was damaged in a collision, was loaded onto a heavy transport ship and prepared to be transported back to the United States for repairs.
▲ On August 21, 2017, a tugboat assisted the destroyer "John S. McCain" in sailing to Singapore Changi Naval Base . The ship collided with a merchant ship while sailing in the Strait of Malacca and east of Singapore .
In 2018, the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Surface Force established the Human Factors Oversight Committee. They believe that in fact, in 2017, the Navy had exposed safety warnings that sailors were overworked and maintenance work was delayed. In early 2017, the cruiser "Antietam" ran aground in Tokyo Bay, leaking 1,100 gallons of fuel and costing $4.2 million in repair costs; in May, the cruiser "Lake Champlain" collided with a Korean fishing boat. The review, released in early November 2017, pointed to a number of problems: poor seamanship, failure to follow safe navigation practices, declining personnel readiness, delayed maintenance work, and more. But these did not attract the navy's attention.
After two serious accidents in 2017, relevant agencies made 117 recommendations to the naval fleet on establishing minimum safety standards. Agencies such as the Human Factors Oversight Committee are also improving the safety of U.S. military ships by improving organizational systems, training, staffing policies and maintenance priorities.
For example, the Seventh Fleet and the Third Fleet responsible for the Pacific region, between fiscal year 2019 and 2021, all 86 maintenance extension applications were approved, even if these extensions will delay the deployment of ships. Deployed ships will need to return if certain systems malfunction and reach redline standards, unless exempted by the combat commander.
The committee also focused on addressing sailor fatigue, which was cited as a factor in two major accidents in 2018. They study the statistical probability of a collision by collecting and sorting out massive amounts of data, such as how much sleep a sailor gets each night, how much training they receive, their proficiency test scores, and more. For example, although the work schedule on the ship takes into account the day and night rhythm and the sailors have at least 7 hours of sleep every day, survey data shows that the sailors do not get as much rest as the commanders thought, and sometimes the sailors will take advantage of it. Use sleep time to complete paperwork or communicate with loved ones. The committee studied some improvement measures, such as improving monitors, blackout curtains, and mattresses, to help sailors improve their sleep quality.
. It also adds data such as mental health and maritime safety climate assessment to improve safety prediction capabilities; uses predictive maintenance and data analysis tools to improve on-time maintenance rates, and stipulates the priority of maintenance and training time and strictly implements it; the ship department Supervisors must participate in continuing ship driving training, and can continue to serve after passing the evaluation, etc.
But challenges still exist. For example, the problem of fatigue has not been completely solved. A survey in the summer of 2021 showed that 90% of sailors followed the day and night duty routine, but 86% of officers did not guarantee 7 hours of sleep a day, and two-thirds of them only slept 5 hours. .
Submission email: bqzs@cos.org.cn
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