[ComradeTaco]

I'm curious what hour of her day the deck officer was on and how many hours of sleep she had the night previous. At some point, sleep deprivation can leave you essentially non-functional.

[chx]

According to official report https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4165320/USS-Fitzg... it played a part for sure:

8.4 Fatigue

The command leadership allowed the schedule of events preceding the collision to fatigue the crew.

The command leadership failed to assess the risks of fatigue and implement mitigation measures to ensure adequate crew rest.

[dTal]

Here is a very scathing and informative commentary on the Navy's "risk assessment" and "mitigation" procedures:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15120369

[chx]

There obviously is something very wrong with the entire system when this happens twice within a short timeframe.

[danielvf]

Started her day on ship at or before 6:00am and had been working for nineteen and half hours at the time of the collision. That's one of many, many reasons the captain is going to be deep trouble.