Symphony of errors leads to collision

摘要

In the early morning hours, a navy frigate was under way in darkness and good visibility at about 17 kt. Its navigation lights were on, but the AIS was in receive mode only and was not transmitting its own AIS information. The bridge was manned with an OOW and six crew, including two lookouts and a helmsman. The OOW called the local vessel tracking service (VTS) by mobile phone, informing them that the frigate would enter the VTS area from the north and gave its planned route. The VTS operator saw a radar echo on his overview screen that was assumed to be the naval vessel. Because the frigate was not transmitting its AIS, information about its identity, plus course and speed vectors were absent.