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 ...
We also buy BILLIONS of board feet of US lumber
People who didn’t expect ships to become 1000 times bigger. Any protection they built in was for ships way smaller and wouldn’t have mattered.
I’m not so sure that 1.5 knots was not the average speed during some portion of the time period* of the collision.
*It might take a full second or more for the ship to come to a full halt, I’m guessing.
(Yeah, I know, double negatives...)
Most interesting - this vid shows that the ship did start to veer slightly away from the bridge support at the last moment, but it was too late.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoPRz7wk3WY
time stamp 9:15
Eggners Ferry Bridge, 2012.
...Probably laughing their asses off!
The anchor wouldn’t make much difference. Maybe make the loss of control worse. Catch something solid and you snap the cable or rip out a chunk of the ship. Would likely just slide along the bottom / through any mud / silt present. In fact, the line to it appears to have gone more vertical in the last 24 hours or so.
Now, if this was a terrorist attack, I’d expect Bite Me to be playing it up big time. It’d make a great black swan event for his Admin., not involving terrorism via illegal aliens.
Black box recovered, its timeline of events expected to be released later today:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13244913/Dali-black-box-NTSB-key-bridge-collapse.html
Yep. that was the Silver King bridge. Also remembered another earlier one, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Galloping Gertie) 1940.
Thanks.
Good (and some new) info. here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grjK6sqQyDA
Mud bottom, significant breeze. Initial impact was likely a bit under 8 knots.
Still hoping for black box info. today.
I never ever heard it called the Silver King Bridge!
Always the Silver Bridge, I used to go over when I was a kid to see relatives in Ohio.
Please explain.
I was unable to find a definition of a “Brown Pelican” event.
bttt
That ship makes the bridge look small.
Anything that could go wrong certainly did so.
That ship makes the bridge look small.
I read that when the bridge was built that ships back then averaged only 1/3rd the size of the one that hit the bridge. That bridge did not have any ‘bumpers’ around the pier.
Lowest bidder design that caught up with the worst case scenario.
The bridge debris will be cleared pretty quick to open the port again but I bet the politicians will get involved and it will take years to build a new one and at least 2 or 3 times + the estimated cost and not the best design with lots of bribery and graft involved.
It’s very possible that the 1.5 kts speed was a transitory speed reading caused by deceleration of the impact
[I added some bits of info, including from the conference, that APNews left out of the story.]
National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB] officials boarded the ship to recover information from its electronics and paperwork and to interview the captain and other crew members, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said during a separate news conference. Twenty-three people, including two pilots, were on the ship when it crashed, she said.
[MV Dali is operated by Synergy Marine in Singapore; there is a branch office in Houston, TX. On March 26th, Synergy Marine reported a crew of 22 (all shipmates and the captain - all are India nationals).]
[Yesterday, March 27th, the NTSB Chair, Jennifer Homendy, reported a crew of 21, plus 2 pilots, total of 23 aboard.]
The vessel was also carrying 56 containers of hazardous materials [HAZMAT] including corrosives, flammables and lithium ion batteries, Homendy said. She added that some containers were breached, and that a sheen on the water from those materials would be handled by authorities.
Marcel Muise, NTSB investigator in charge, laid out a preliminary timeline assembled from the voyage data recorder [VDR] comprising audio from the bridge and VHF radio ahead of the crash, which federal and state officials have said appeared to be an accident.
The vessel, the Dali, left [the well-lit main terminal at the Port of Baltimore] at 12:39 a.m. Tuesday and . . .
[Two tugboats operated by McAllister Towing and Transportation, guided MV Dali into the relative top of the channel lane that heads southeast to the Francis Scot Key (FSK) Bridge. At that relative top of the lane, MV Dali was oriented to a heading of 141 degrees and proceeded at 8 knots. The channel avg. max. depth is 55 ft.]
After [MV Dali] entered the channel [and was underway], signs of trouble came at about 1:25 a.m. when numerous alarms sounded, according to the NTSB. About a minute later, steering commands and rudder orders were issued, and at 1:26 a.m. and 39 seconds, a pilot made a general radio call for nearby tug boats.
Maryland Transportation Authority [MDTA] data from about the same time shows the pilot association [actually: Association of Maryland Pilots] dispatcher called the transportation authority’s officer on duty about the blackout, the NTSB said.
Just after 1:27 a.m., the pilot commanded the ship to drop an anchor on the left side [port bow] of the ship and issued added steering commands. About 20 seconds later, the pilot issued a radio call reporting that the Dali had lost all power approaching the bridge.
At about that time, the state transportation officer [MDTA Police] on duty radioed two of its units already stationed at each end of the bridge saying to close the bridge to vehicle traffic. They were already there because of the construction.
Around 1:29 a.m., when the ship was traveling at about [7 knots] 8 mph (13 kph), recordings for about 30 seconds picked up sounds consistent with it colliding with the bridge, the NTSB said. A Transportation Authority [MDTA vehicle] dash camera also shows lights on the bridge going out.
At 1:29 a.m. and 39 seconds, the pilot reported to the Coast Guard that the bridge was down.
Muise said experts will review the entire voyage data recording and develop a detailed transcript.
At least eight people initially went into the water when the ship struck the bridge column, and two of them were rescued Tuesday [March 26th], officials said.
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before it collided with Baltimore bridge, officials say.
https://apnews.com/article/baltimore-key-bridge-collapse-03-27-2024-6a95340e5daeff6551fc999d23feb278
- - -
PS. Another Freeper found and posted this story in a reply. I produced the above, from that work; but I hit the wrong button and lost my original workup of the above AND that Freeper's name. Duh. So, no H/T, though I should have one, here.
The MV Dali main propulsion is a MAN-B&W Diesel-Turbo 9S90ME-C9.2 Super-Long-2-Stroke, Electronicaly-Conrolled, High-Torque, 9-cylinder Engine, featuring lower propeller speeds. The engine operates in Forward and Reverse, and is built by two-stroke engine builder Hyundai Heavy Industries.
PS. IIRC. The NTSB Chair, Jennifer Hemendy, reported that the U.S.C.G. actually was the initial boarding party, and that party retrieved the VDR - then forwarded that plus other info, into a DHS office for analysis, while also reporting and sending findings to the NTSB.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.