Monday, June 19, 2017

When Things Go Wrong! (Part Two)

Some of the stuff we read these days is almost unbelievable. How does one explain what happened last week off the coast of Japan when a fully loaded container ship almost sank a "fully loaded" American destroyer. I say "fully loaded" because this spy ship, sent to keep its eye on the bad guys in North Korea, was jam packed with all the latest radar, sonar and G.P.S tracking equipment known to man.
Yet, unbelievably, it crashed into a freighter the size of a floating city.
The USS Fitzgerald, on a clear night, in calm seas with little other shipping in the area collided with a vessel three times its size killing seven of its crew and had to be towed back to port.
When all the enquiries have taken place (and there will be many of them) the answer to the question 'how it happened?' will come down to one thing:human error.
One hundred million dollars worth of the most sophisticated navigation equipment rendered useless by one person asleep at the switch.
During my days at sea we posted a look out in the bows and another on the bridge and had only the most rudimentary equipment. Somehow we managed to get to where we were going safely. Nobody fell asleep!
The lesson in all of this is, in days of self drive cars, self drive ships, self drive planes, is that human beings still matter.
Who ever you are and where ever you are, TRUST IN GOD and STAY AWAKE.
Jubilate. 
Ian.

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