Posted on 11/19/2025 7:11:53 AM PST by Red Badger
The cargo ship that rammed into Baltimore's Key Bridge in March 2024, shortly after experiencing two blackouts, initially lost power due to an improperly installed wire, the National Transportation Safety Board revealed on Tuesday.
The NTSB further found safety issues related to the Dali's machinery and electrical systems that prevented the ship from fully recovering following the initial blackout, the agency said.
The Dali, a Singaporean vessel, struck one of the piers on the Key Bridge early on the morning of March 26, 2024, causing the bridge to collapse and killing six construction workers who were filling potholes on the span.
"This tragedy should have never occurred," National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said during a hearing on Tuesday on the findings of the agency's 20-month investigation into the crash. "Lives should have never been lost, as with all accidents that we investigate, this was preventable."
According to the NTSB, on the day of the crash, a wire that had loosened over time due to an unstable connection ultimately disconnected from its breaker, resulting in a loss of propulsion and steering. A label identifying what the wire powered prevented it from being fully inserted into the breaker, the agency found.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
One bad wire caused the entire ship to lose power? That boggles the mind.
Same thing happens when a ship lost coffee.
How convenient.
Quality is no longer even considered in manufacturing today. Speed to market and cost savings, it's all about profits and profits only.
”Look for the union label”
Do I believe the story about the loose wire? I’m a frayed knot.
When you want to cover up bad troubleshooting or bad operators, the finding offered to the management is always a loose wire. It cannot be refuted. Second place on hiding failures is the various assortment of blown fuses kept in the toolbox, where it is by slight of hand miraculously "discovered", while you fix the real problem.
Most modern controls systems today operate off of 24 volt wiring connected via ethernet signal, to a device specific controller that runs 460 volt AC servo drives, frequency drives, and hard contact motor starter relays. All it takes is an E-Stop bumped, a scan time error, or a button pushed at the wrong time, and it all shuts down.
There are no longer actual directly wired controls anymore. Everything operates with essentially phone calls at super high speeds in scan times. Every device shakes hands with every other related group device several hundred times a second. One hiccup in those handshakes not being sent or received within the prescribed milliseconds, and it all shuts down or pops up with errors which must be cleared with a laptop within the processors.
Not all technology advancements are the best for certain applications, but that's how we are rolling going into the future.
Quite.
Sadly.
That twit was the worst part of that movie.
“One bad wire caused the entire ship to lose power? That boggles the mind.”
Nope.
We are supposed to believe that there is no backup. One wire took out every system, manual and backup to steer this ship, not plausible
It absolutely does not. 22 years Navy. It really can and does happen.
Suppose that one wire provided power to a controller, motor, or helm-to-rudder communications. Rudders are too big and require too much force to be positioned by muscle power..
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.