Could This Have Been Deliberate?

[ToraToraTora]

https://news.sky.com/story/captain-of-solong-container-ship-involved-in-north-sea-crash-is-russian-national-company-says-13326888

Russian captain? mmmm!

[Ellipsis]

What a coincidence! 🙄

[naomi24]

That would explain a lot.

[DDIL]

I was listening to an expert yesterday that said it likely happened as the overworked crew decided that it was a safe time to take a break, so popped it on auto pilot not expecting there to be a 'parked' ship.

[youngmafbog]

More likley Vodka.

[THECORBYLOON]

One of the sailors on the ship that was struck said the other ship come out the blue but why was that not seen earlier on its own tracking system?

[youngmafbog]

Yes, alarms shoudl have been ringing for some time, but if crew absent from the bridge or supping the morning vodka then precious minutes would be lost.

I dont know how big this tanker is/was but it can take quite a time to turn a large vessel like these.  Stopping distance is often over 10 mins too.

[bhg481]

The Daily Mail claims the captain of the container ship was Russian.

[ToraToraTora]

surely auto pilot is programmed to avoid other ships even those at anchor.

[DDIL]

Not according to the expert on the TV yesterday.

[ToraToraTora]

TBF I think the crew all Vodkarised is probably what hapenned but the Russian captain did make me wonder.

[DDIL]

North Sea Collision Raises Autopilot Safety Concerns in Maritime Industry – Ship Universe

 

[DDIL]

Sorry I can't do a link but if you put this into a search engine, it brings up an interesting paper

 

[vulcan42]

Yes certainly a strange coincidence, a Russian ship  hits an anchored tanker that just happens to be carrying avgas for American Air force fighters based in UK. 

[Old_Geezer]

Believe that "nothing" is impossible for Russia to try, but lets not climb on the conspiracy theory trail just yet.

[andy-hughes]

It's a disappointing aspect of our increasingly turbulent world, that people are keener to reach for a conspiracy theory, than simply accept that a series of unfortunate coincidences may have lead to this incident, until proven otherwise. And that proof is still some way off yet.