3 crew missing after ships collide off Ehime

What's with all the collisions as sea these days?

Again?

Another one?

Hope they find the poor souls.

According to a Japanese sailor, this accident happened in the Kurushima Strait, where ships have to follow a unique navigational rule. The navigation lane changes with the direction of the tidal current. If the tidal current is north-going, ships must navigate in the right lane and when the tidal current is south-going, ships must navigate in the left lane, i.e. the opposite lane. A land based “vessel traffic service center” apparently issues instructions to ships by VHF or signal stations, but with such an odd rule, it’s easy for accidents to occur.

I seen a car flipped over on a sharp turn the other day. But I see this more often now then ever. Same with ships colliding. A future generation that rely on machines to make decisions has resulted in very little common sense.

As the saying goes the more the world advances in technology the more we are moving behind. Really cannot figure out the formula for these actions except humans are just too dependent on technology as opposed to doing things themselves. For example pilots flying a plane today virtually need to do nothing because it flies by itself. Back in the day it used to be more of a human element where the pilot actually kept his eyes open all the time. Now days the new norm is just let the computers handled everything. Not good

Ship collisions seem to happen often in the waters around Japan.

Most radar sets have proximity alarms but in such a busy area as that in which this collision occurred, with so much traffic, it may have been switched off or just ignored because of so many warnings,

However, not being there to see what happened I have no wish to speculate as to what equipment was in use or who was responsible.

obladiToday  04:25 pm JST

What's with all the collisions as sea these days?

There have been 332 maritime accidents reported globally in 2021. There were 945 in all of 2020. They happen all the time. It's just that you don't hear about them unless they occur in Japanese waters and get reported on JT.

11,500 tons. Apparently they have divers going through the ship, but it’s upside down and they are making little progress. The tidal current is very strong there so they are limited to going in during the slack changeover periods.

I would like to see the results of an investigation as to how and why this collision happened, and what can be done to avoid a repetition.

@Sven Asai There are already regulations that ships over 100 Tons must have active AIS systems at all times. AIS identifies, gives position, speed, direction, calculates the point of closest approach, for every vessel in the vicinity, etc. I have noticed that many ships in Asia don't keep their AIS on.

On the news this evening they reported that the ship is upside down at the bottom of the Set Inland sea, 60 meters (200 feet?) down. If the remains three crew members are trapped inside...

Edit: remains = remaining.

Again!!!

Standard practice, even on small fishing boats, is to have a radar reflector, that lights you up on the radar of larger ships.

There do seem to be a lot of collisions in Japanese waters, from small boats to large navy ships.

PS Little progress in finding the three missing crew members, that is.

Short ago, after the collision near Hokkaido, fishermen vs. Russian trawler, I demanded (or let’s say recommended) automated distance warners to be installed in the ships. Seems to be having been ignored so far. That’s also an option, but not the better one.

How is it possible for two ships to collide when they are both running proper watches, radar, and AIS? Oh, they weren't doing those things. I have noticed many Japanese ships that don't run AIS in the area near me. Why doesn't Japan enforce this? I'll bet Korean maritime law is even less strict. Time for an upgrade!

A head on collision?

I would have braked harder...