Posted on 03/27/2024 3:34:12 AM PDT by Sam77
According to USA Today the crew on the MV Dali lost control of the vessel and reported that to Maryland Department of Transportation officials just before it collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
“The vessel notified MD Department of Transportation (MDOT) that they had lost control of the vessel” and a collision with the bridge “was possible,” according to an unclassified Department of Homeland Security report. “The vessel struck the bridge causing a complete collapse.”
We're also learning more about what happened in the lead-up to the collision and collapse.
Clay Diamond, executive director of the American Pilots Association, told the New York Times that one harbor pilot and one apprentice were aboard the Dali as it left the Port of Baltimore. Diamond also said that he was told by the Maryland pilots' group that the ship had a "complete blackout" and never regained propulsion power before the crash.
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
Looked like that ship was in boogie mode.
Somebody who claims to know diesel engines says that they give off smoke when you rev them, so he thinks the pilot revved the boat before shutting it down.
The Queen Mary cut her engines 30 miles from destination port.
On another thread, someone posted a screen shot of (I think) a tweet saying that McConnell’s dead SIL was CEO of the company that owns that ship/barge.
Someone suggested the soot was due to trying to restart the the engine.
Don’t they have tug boats at the ready ,in case this situation arises? It seems to me that the harbor “master” was lackadaisical when it comes to the safety of the bridge and harbor. WTF were they doing?
Why wasn’t it being towed out?
Why were they so close to the bridge pylon? They had half the river till the next one.
Did the ship have tug escorts, and if not, why not?
“All astern,”ping!
Good question. Plus the bridge looked like it wasn’t either a good design or built cheesely or both. At least upgraded for bigger ships of the day.
The whole thing makes no sense. I wonder if they are trying to distract us from something bigger
Nothing would surprise me.
Baltimore is pro-diversity, so I wonder who the apprentice pilot was. Doesn’t matter, because this looks like a purely mechanical issue, there could have been some seamanship decisions, but an out-of-control ship there’s not a lot you can do, although sone of the decisions they made could have caused it to turn at the end.
Haven’t heard anything about the harbor “master”, the ship’s captain, or crew.
It is obvious from one of the videos that the ship was steered hard to the right into the bridge pier.
If not for that steerage it would appear to have passed under the bridge.
I explain, the viewers perspective of the side of the ship shortens rapidly as it approaches ie: comes towards the bridge pier which indicates alignment with not divergence from.
What about dropping the anchor?
It was suggested that they should build a tunnel, for safety reasons. They built a bridge because it was cheaper. Bridge detractors speculated as to the date the structure would come crashing down, thanks to this type of incident. At just under 50 years, it’s had a good run.
in the 70’s the largest ships were about 1/3 the size of todays largest ships
After the 1980 bridge collapse near Tampa, bridge supports everywhere should have had islands and other obstacles built around them to protect them from these events
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