How could this happen?

[adru]

Earlier this month there was collision between two ships in the North Sea; the Dutch freighter Flinterstar and Vlgc Al Oraiq. After watching the embedded video it appears they both altered their course toward the North (if the top of the video is indeed North). From that point on there does not appear to be much deviation from either course until right before the collision when the Al Oraiq turns directly into the Flinterstar. Is this a case of two ship Captains (Pilots) being asleep at the wheel? With all the communication and navigation including AIS how is this even possible these days? Accident avoidance technology in cars is gaining momentum (where the vehicle computer actually slows the car to prevent an accident if the operator doesn't) is it time to have similar technology installed on commercial watercraft as well?

http://youtu.be/IknycXF_lSI

 

[RamSport47]

hmmm. It almost looks as if they headed towards each other on purpose. From what I see, the Al Oraiq is the vessel at fault....assuming they have the same "rules of the road" as we do in the US

 

[gaineso]

Is Al Oraiq something like Al Quida????

 

[rbmitchell]

That seems to be the same thing that happened to the Andrea Doria. At least one of the ships was along side a mist bank and thought they were seeing an radar "reflection" off that bank. It was a classic case of a "radar assisted collision".