MV Dali Lost Propulsion Before Crashing Into Baltimore Bridge; Had Prior Crash in 2016

Red State ^ | 27 March 2024 | Jennifer Van Laar

[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.

[sjmjax]

My speculation after watching several videos is that someone deliberately changed course to collide with the bridge.
Then, they or an accomplice shut down engine and maneuvering power.
A struggle ensued.
Power was briefly restored and and attempt made to slow or change course.
Power shut down again and .... boom!
Political and media forces do not want you to know or think it was a deliberate terrorist act under Uncle Joe’s watch.

[woodbutcher1963]

I know it is a FR tradition to NEVER actually read the article prior to commenting, but:

The PILOT with TEN years of experience ordered the port anchor be dropped to steer the ship away from the bridge.

“that the port anchor be dropped in an unsuccessful effort to halt or slow the vessel’s drift toward the bridge”

[OKSooner]

No oversize loads thru a tunnel, nor hazmats.

All that stuff that's sitting on the docks or aboard ships waiting to be unloaded in Baltimore is stuck there for the foreseeable future.

Obviously the port of Baltimore is offline for the foreseeable future, not any less so than if it had been hit by a nuke. Gotta go to NYC, North Carolina, or in certain cases... New Orleans.

But it was obviously "just an accident"...

H/T Matt Bracken / X

[zeestephen]

Re: "out-of-control ship"

There are four pilings (piers might be the exact word) that hold up 1,200 feet of the center truss.

The center span of the truss was about 600 feet in width.

The width of the ship is more than 100 feet, so, not a lot of room for error.

However, from the photos I have seen, it looks like the ship hit the piling, head first, straight on, which would be about one chance in six for random error.

The gender and skin color of the ship captain and the harbor master have not been released yet, so I will speculate that one or both were NOT heterosexual white males.

Finally, no word if the ship was continuously blasting its horn.

That might have saved the lives of the six missing construction workers, if they had a couple minutes of warning, although if I was one them, I never would have believed that all 1,200 feet of the truss would collapse into the ice cold river.

[woodbutcher1963]

That depends on the port and the velocity of the current of the river.

The Piscataqua River that divides Kittery, ME from Portsmouth, NH has a tidal flow rate of 4 Knots. At times that is over 6 MPH. Which makes it only second to the Niagara River in velocity in the USA.

They do not bring any ships up or down that river without tugs. Even the submarines coming into be refitted at the Naval base get assistance.

FYI, about 30 years back I was on my father in laws 32’ sailboat out in the mouth of that river about a mile off shore. Suddenly the ocean about a 1/4 mile in front of us started mounding up. A nuclear sub came up out of the water right in front of us. It was incredible and scary at the same time. Yet, I am sure they knew exactly where we were when they surfaced.

[woodbutcher1963]

My company(we import lumber, plywood & OSB) uses Wilmington(DE), Philly, New Haven(CT), Baltimore, Wilmington(NC), Savannah, Newark, Canaveral, Tampa, Mobile, Houston.

Many of these port facilities could be used to transfer goods that normally came through Baltimore. However, the Sparrows Point section of the Baltimore harbor is SOUTH of the Key bridge.

In Sparrows Point there are two main port facilities. Home Depot has their warehouse there. BMW & Volkswagon off load their automobiles there. These auto ports could be taken over by the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT as a need for national security while the debris is cleared from the channel. From Sparrows Point you can access RT 695 going north. Which means any traffic going south would have to loop around Baltimore to the west prior to heading south on I95.

This is the essence of a National Emergency. I would hope that the Secretary of Transportation is looking into this right now instead of breast feeding HIS toddler.

[bobbo666]

Loss of power and the anchor’s inability to do more than drag on a cleaned channel means they had no control at all. On either speed or direction.
A ship with only one propeller will go off in a direction depending on which way the propeller is turning. With no rudder acting -— boat is doomed to go round and round in open sea. In a channel, they leave the channel.

[iontheball]

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.
_____________________
Yes, its true diesel engines smoke like hell when you rev. the engine, but my guess is that happened as the pilot desperately reversed the prop to slow the ship once he gained electronic control over the ship. However, the real question is what killed the electronics? Here is an article that discusses the possible cause for the loss of electrical power, which is likely directly related to ship’s loss of steering and engine power.

https://securityledger.com/2018/06/container-ships-easy-to-hack-track-send-off-course-and-even-sink-security-experts-say/

[Churchillspirit]

Makes sense.

[iontheball]

Why wasn’t it being towed out?
_______________________________
I heard the tugs had disconnected once the ship has set course up the channel.

[SunkenCiv]

• Cardin: We Can 'Streamline' Replacing Baltimore Bridge, 'Cut Through Some Red Tape' Other Projects Face [03/27/2024]
• Titanic law could help ship owner limit liability in Baltimore bridge collapse [03/26/2024]
• Di Leo: The Cheap Mercedes and the Beautiful Bridge [03/26/2024]
• OP-ED: The Baltimore Bridge Disaster By Supply Chain Expert and Navy Veteran Jim Nelles [03/26/2024]
• Pete Buttigieg calls collapsed Baltimore Francis Scott Key bridge one of the 'cathedrals of American infrastructure' and warns of massive supply chain issues [03/26/2024]
• Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Holds Emergency Press Conference To Announce He Is Taking 3 More Months Maternity Leave [03/26/2024]
• Old Joe Biden Says He Took Train Across the Collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge "Many Times" ... [03/26/2024]
• Florida governor offers help to Maryland in wake of Baltimore bridge collapse [03/26/2024]
• 1915: 22 Singapore mutineers [03/26/2024]

[woodbutcher1963]

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.2289295,-76.4862819,12344m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

If you click on this Google Earth/maps link and zoom in on Sparrows Point to the east(right) of the Key bridge you will see the Tradepoint Terminal.

Home Depot, Atlantic Forest Products(a competitor of ours), Floor& Decor warehouse, Amazon Warehouse, etc.
On the south side and north side of the peninsula all those White rectangular things are units of lumber. You can also see the Volkswagon parking lot. However, when this satellite photo was taken there was a lot of open area that could be used temporarily to offload materials that prior went to port facilities north of the Key bridge.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Conspiracy theorists have been hard at work saying it was done on purpose. they hate it when I point to bridge collapses in the past.

Tacoma Narrows bridge (Galloping Gertie)1940
Silver King Bridge over 50 years ago
I-40 bridge in Oklahoma 2002
Now this one.

[Reily]

Silver King Bridge??? Are you talking about the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, WV? That was about 50 years ago.

[Taxman]

Black Swan event, anyone?

[central_va]

we import lumber

How about you buy American!!!

[central_va]

More like a “Brown Pelican” event.

[faucetman]

Scrubbed the dock, not exactly a “crash”. NOTHING of the SCALE of this actual crash.

Was the ship ever named “Christine”?

[discostu]

Most accidents have a pretty unbelievable set of circumstances to happen. That’s why they don’t happen more often. It’s just like the lottery, astronomical odds still happen. You can look at the situation and think “there’s like a 1 in 100,000,000 chance of this happening” but then remember this bridge nearly 50 years old, and you can wonder how many ships have gone under it. Over a long enough stretch of time astronomical odds become eventualities.

[meatloaf]

Who made the decision not to protect the piers with a fender system when the bridge was built on the 1970s?