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2009-04-09 Home Front: WoT

San Francisco at sea again after nose repair

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Posted by tu3031 2009-04-09 16:56|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top

#1 I'm curious. I know the Navy has a fair number of Los Angeles class boats in storage. Was it cheaper to repair the San Francisco than to bring one of those out?

Posted by Steve White 2009-04-09 17:38|| 2009-04-09 17:38|| Front Page Top

#2 Yee-ouch. Good picture.

I take it the Captain "retired"....

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2009-04-09 17:59|| 2009-04-09 17:59|| Front Page Top

#3 Barbara, according to Wikipedia, he was reassigned to shore duty, and after an investigation, given a nonjudicial letter of reprimand and relieved of command. Six other crew members went to Captain's Mast and were given letters of reprimand. Also, twenty officers of men were given letters of recommendation and medals for their actions after the collision. Apparently the boat was almost lost.

Posted by Rambler in Virginia">Rambler in Virginia 2009-04-09 18:10|| 2009-04-09 18:10|| Front Page Top

#4 The reactor was recently refueled before the collision. Refueling a sub reactor costs a few hundred million $, more than the repair.

Posted by ed 2009-04-09 18:10|| 2009-04-09 18:10|| Front Page Top

#5 Thanks, Rambler.

I'm a little fuzzy about how they crashed into a sea mount - don't they have radar? Or doesn't it work underwater? The mount must have been awfully close to the surface (unless they were practicing deep dives).

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2009-04-09 18:13|| 2009-04-09 18:13|| Front Page Top

#6 They were in the middle of a highspeed transit run - no sonar, they were blind.

Posted by gromky 2009-04-09 18:55|| 2009-04-09 18:55|| Front Page Top

#7
Almost immediately, attention focused on the fact that the mountain was not on the charts, and even some within the submarine community wondered whether the crew should be held responsible.

But the investigation showed that there were at least five notices to mariners, most recently in 2002, about a large patch of muddy water about three miles south of the sea mount that were not incorporated on the charts the San Francisco was using at the time, the sources said.

If the bottom had been as deep as the 1989 chart indicated, that muddy patch would not have appeared.

Even more serious than them breakdown in the chart preparation process, the sources said, were the warning signs that were not heeded, particularly the soundings taken by the ship's fathometer. Just minutes before the crash, the San Francisco came to the surface to check its location on the Global Positioning System.

The submarine is also equipped with the sophisticated Ring Laser Gyro Navigator, so it knew its position with a high degree of certainty.

Yet where the charts showed 1,000 fathoms of water, the sounding showed less than 800 fathoms still a huge safety margin below the keel, but a difference that should have caused the navigation team to recommend proceeding with caution.

In addition, the navigation team had noted for a lengthy period that the water depth was shoaling, or becoming more shallow.

The team apparently believed it was a faulty reading moving through the water at 30 mph, fathometer readings can be inaccurate and the team kept hoping that perhaps the next reading would correlate with the chart.

In retrospect, it's clear that the readings were accurate, the water was shoaling, and the San Francisco was heading for what was nearly an underwater cliff.

Posted by john frum 2009-04-09 19:07|| 2009-04-09 19:07|| Front Page Top

#8 Uh. uh, instead of bumping into GODZILLA they're gonna make darn sure its RODAN this time!?

Gut Nuthin.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2009-04-09 20:55|| 2009-04-09 20:55|| Front Page Top

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