After the US Navy decided to proceed with criminal charges against the commanders of the two US warships, that were involved in fatal collisions with merchant ships in 2017, a court-martial of a ship’s captain is possible, something that has not happened in many years.
‘USS Fitzgerald‘ collided with ‘ACX Crystal’ on 17 June 2017 in Japanese waters, causing death of seven crew. ‘USS John S. McCain‘ collided with the chemical tanker ‘Alnic MC’ on 21 August 2017 in the Straits of Singapore and resulted in the deaths of 10 sailors.
Cmdr. Bryce Benson, former commander of the ‘USS Fitzgerald’, along with three Fitzgerald junior officers, as well as Cmdr. Alfredo J. Sanchez, former commander of ‘USS John S. McCain’, face a mix charges that include dereliction of duty, hazarding a vessel and negligent homicide, according to a statement from the US Navy provided to USNI news.
Deadly collisions of Navy vessels, although rare, can be proven embarrassing and politically charged afterward. Namely, in the few incidents that have happened in the past 80 years, commanding officers have been convicted in some cases and acquitted in others, while a court-martial was considered for skippers, only to later decide that was not warranted.
In the new cases, officers will examine the cases, and make a recommendation to a senior commander about whether to pursue criminal charges.
According to Bryan McGrath, a retired naval officer and former destroyer captain, it is not likely that the Navy will prove negligent homicide and may not even pursue the charge. However, he added, it is very clear that “gross professional negligence” was involved in both collisions.
In the case of the Fitzgerald, Benson and three other more junior officers face charges for the June 17 crash, which killed seven sailors off the coast of Japan. According to the investigation, the collision occurred after watch teams did not conduct established ways, resulting in the crash between the two ships. Benson was not on the bridge at the time of the incident.
In the McCain collision Sanchez was on the bridge at the time, but the Navy discovered that the collision happened “primarily from complacency, overconfidence and lack of procedural compliance.”
The Navy has not court-martialed a ship captain since a deadly incident, where the destroyer USS Kinkaid and the Panamanian-flagged freighter M/V Kota Petani collided in the Straits of Malacca on Nov. 12, 1989, killing one naval officer aboard the Kinkaid and injuring 17 sailors, international sources report.
In this case, the ship’s captain, Cmdr. John Cochrane, faced charges of dereliction of duty and negligence, but was acquitted after defense attorneys claimed that his crew never informed him that the ship was in danger. Like Benson on the Fitzgerald, Cmdr. John Cochrane was asleep at the time of the accident.
The two new cases are similar to an older one, Lawrence Brennan, a retired Navy lawyer and law professor at Fordham University, said. Specifically, after the collision of the guide-missile cruiser USS Belknap and the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy, eight service members were killed and 48 were injured.
The US Navy then court-martialed Capt. Walker R. Shafer, the captain of the Belknap, and Capt. William A. Gureck, the captain of the Kennedy, and acquitted both. Later, Lt. Kenneth M. Knull, officer of the deck on the Belknap, was found guilty of negligence and disregarding a standing order, but was not imposed a punishment.
Speaking about the incidents, James Stavridis, who retired as a four-star admiral in 2013, said that the people involved in these made important errors and have to go to trial. This will set the record for future incidents, of any kind of vessel, he concluded.
U.S. Navy is typically using scapegoats instead of admitting bad policies, for example: overloading junior officers with watches, administrative duties, etc. Navy has historically failed to admit to being at fault for unfortunate events.