The Navy installed touch-screen steering systems to save money. Ten sailors paid with their lives.

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bopper

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Nov 22, 2016
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Interesting article, and I enjoyed the formatting-- made it easy for a non-naval person to follow. Thanks for sharing.

The headline is disingenuous. I'm not quite sure how "the Navy's flawed technology set the McCain up for disaster" after reading this article. The entire article points to training and protocol failures by the crew, complacency, and poor decisions by leadership that (admittedly) knew better.
 
@Tbpxece I think the software made it hard to know what the ship was doing...nobody could easily see that the two propellers were turning at different rates and that the ship was turning so much.
 
bopper said:
@Tbpxece I think the software made it hard to know what the ship was doing...nobody could easily see that the two propellers were turning at different rates and that the ship was turning so much.
Click to expand...
That certainly was a complicating factor, but after reading the article, the following facts seem to have been more contributory:
  • They were letting a guy with less than 4 months' experience steer an 8300-ton destroyer
  • That same guy admitted that "there were many things he did not understand about...the touch screen"
  • The ships' captain similarly admittedly had issues with the system that appear to have stemmed from a lack of training (which he did not attempt to resolve.
  • The captain also regularly operated the system in a manner in which it was not designed to be operated (manual mode), and in a way that created additional risks
  • The rest of the crew (including the training manager) was woefully undertrained on the system, yet no-one ever appears to have pointed this out
  • Major emergency features on the system (including the "big red button") were unknown to everyone on board. This is inexcusable.

The statement by Cmdr Doss towards the top seems to sum up what happened: "He cited human error compounded by 'complacency, indifference, non-compliance, overconfidence, and disregard for watchstanding requirements.'"

The NTSB indicated that the touchscreen "increased the likelihood of the operator errors that led to the collision.", but there is no indication that it caused the crash. Or led to the deaths of 10 sailors. Complacency and non-compliance led to those deaths.

Again, fantastic article. Misleading or even deceitful headline.

Thanks for sharing and Happy New Year!
 
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