Strange story Japanese rams fishing boat

rock45

Active member
* Not your common fishing story and want to know if anybody knew anything else about this, thanks.

Japanese destroyer rams fishing boat

Published: Feb. 18, 2008 at 7:07 PM

YOKOHAMA, Japan, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A fishing boat apparently split in two and sank Tuesday when rammed by a Japanese destroyer in the Pacific Ocean off Japan's Chiba Prefecture.

Japanese Coast Guard officials said it was not known whether there were any casualties, Kyodo news service reported.

The 4 a.m. collision apparently involved a 7,700-ton, 540-foot, Atago Aegis system-equipped destroyer and a fishing boat belonging to a fishery cooperative in Katsuura, Kyodo reported. Such fishing boats usually have two people on board, the news service said.

The coast guard had dispatched a patrol boat and aircraft to search the accident site.

link
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/02/18/japanese_destroyer_rams_fishing_boat/7743/
 
i'd say. who'd want to sink a fishing boat? was it an accident? did anyone die? any survivors? yea, i agree...odd...
 
Odd

Sorry didn't mean any disrespect if was just very odd that such an advance ship of war would collied with a fishing boat. They use the word "rammed" in the article so I was lead to believe it may have been on purpose.
 
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no offense taken. i read the article and that's what i assumed as well. sometimes though, with news articles, you've got to read between the lines.
 
Follow up

Japan questions military after top destroyer's crash

16 hours ago
Japan questions military after top destroyer's crash

16 hours ago
TOKYO (AFP) — Military experts sounded alarm Wednesday over the Japanese military's ability to defend the country after one of its most advanced naval destroyers crashed into a fishing boat, leaving two missing.
Tuesday's collision came as Japan steps up security to ensure safety during July's summit of the Group of Eight major industrial countries, to be held in the northern resort town of Toyako.
The 165-metre (545-foot) -long Atago destroyer, returning from a visit to Hawaii, crashed into the tuna-fishing boat off the Pacific coast south of Tokyo.
Planes, boats and divers searched for a second day Wednesday for a father and son who were onboard when the small boat was smashed in half.
The accident sparked bewilderment in Japan as the Atago is the latest and largest of Japan's destroyers, equipped with the US-developed Aegis radar system, seen as a frontline defence against a North Korean missile attack.
"I may not come off as an expert, but I wonder whether the fishing boat was not detected by the radar," said Yoshimi Watanabe, Japan's state minister in charge of administrative and regulatory reforms.
"What if it had been a terrorist boat on a suicide bombing?" he said.
The Aegis system can track incoming missiles by radar, a concern since communist rival North Korea fired a missile over Japan's main island in 1998.
The destroyer reportedly hit the brakes only one minute before the collision -- suggesting it only spotted the small boat very late.
"If they cannot act in an actual case like this, it is a problem no matter how high quality their equipment and training," said Hisao Iwashima, a military analyst and professor at Seigakuin University Graduate School.
But another military expert, Tadasu Kumagai, said it was a common misunderstanding that ships with the Aegis system were looking at threats in the immediate vicinity.
"It has an advanced radar for air defence, but its navigational radar is about the same quality as that of a fishing boat," he said.
Kumagai said however worries over suicide attacks from small boats going undetected were very real.
"A small boat is difficult to find on a navigational radar," he said. "That would be a problem."

Link
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g0HIqOTqjvAidOUsQ3G0bVcIrZuQ
 
So they are basically saying the ships navigational radar couldnt detect a fishing boat? Any idea of what size the fishing boat was?
 
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