https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8M4n32V2L4
Finally: Somebody asking all the questions reverberating in my head.
Interestingly, watch 4:57-5:15. It’s sped up video of the moments leading up to the collision.
That video demonstrates a rudder movement caused the ship to run headlong into the bridge support...NOT ‘drifted’.
No mystery here...or conspiracy...
The ship lost power, and thus steering. When power was regained, the pilot immediately turned rudder hard to port to force the bow of the ship to the left side of the bridge support. When power cut out again, the rudder was hard to port and stuck there. When they got the engine reversed and went hard astern, the torque on the ships propeller and the hard port rudder forced the bow to starboard even more.
And then physics took over...they simply didn’t have enough time to slow down, although they did reduce the ship’s speed from 8 kts to 1.5 kts.
Does anyone outside of NYC know about this?
...and we still don’t know who was piloting the ship.