Posted on 03/25/2024 11:45:29 PM PDT by Drago
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland which crosses the Patapsco River has reportedly Collapsed within the last few minutes after being Struck by a Large Container Ship
(Excerpt) Read more at x.com ...
Better yet...Has that cross-country skier dude from Alaska weighed in on this disaster?
Just last week a container ship took out four giant cranes at a Turkish port. That ship didn’t lose power or have any other mechanical malfunction, it just came in too fast. They even had a pilot on board but “stuff happens”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc-BmjaPxcU
Some of these container ships are bigger than aircraft carriers. A mistake with a massive ship can have impressive results.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZbUXewlQDk
Marine traffic showed the vessel traveling at 8.7 kn when power went out. The ship was thrown into reverse, producing a cloud of black smoke from the revving diesels. And I heard a report that the crew was able to get one of the two anchors down, but to no effect. Well, to some effect. the ship slowed to 5.3 and still had enough speed and mass to destroy the bridge.
It seems to me, that if this were a deliberate and planned attack, why the power failure?
1. Terrorist's remote in. The ships computer system (including power) was hacked then powered down. The crew then tries to restart (generators?) but isn't complete/successful/generators fail?
or
2. Terrorist(s) onboard, shut power down...etc.
Why deploy an anchor?
The crew knew (or perhaps even didn't know at that time) the ship was under attack (remotely or onboard) so they deployed the anchor in a desperate attempt to slow/stop the ship.
Why issue a May Day call?
See anchor scenario.
Why hit the bridge at 1:30 am instead of when it would be crowded?
Economic terrorism. Physiological warfare. Terrorism isn't limited to just massive immediate loss of life. Also, perhaps this was the easiest ship to target (either onboard or remotely) so they had no control over when the opportunity to hit the bridge would occur.
I'm definitely leaning towards a terrible accident...but if it was a terrorist act, do I believe the government will do everything they can to bury the facts...absolutely.
Requiring escort tugs until the vessel(s) cleared the Key Bridge might have helped, but it's too late now...(that ship has sailed).
The Turkey crane incident,ol’ boy came in way too fast !
Sal, the YouTuber, does a good job covering maritime issues.
Looking at google earth it appears it might be about an 8-mile detour. We had a landslide here in Washington state that wiped out about 1000 feet of road causing a 100 mile detour for the towns upriver to get to the main highway.
Yup.
Your report is not error free. For example, there was a Maryland pilot on board the ship in command. Also, The ship was in the approach channel from a good ways back from the bridge after it came out to the center of the river. It only veered to its right just at the end before it hit the bridge. Prior to that it was exactly where it was supposed to be. When the power goes out control over the rudder is lost.
In the absence of tugboats, wouldn’t the ship command be given to a local captain?
The pilot wasn't in command, the ship's captain was.
lol. Well said. My “initial assessment” was reading comments from others who watched the same 20 seconds.
I would prefer to errr on the side of assuming it was intentional until proven otherwise. Unfortunately I am willing to bet that the assumption is to assume NOT intentional until proven otherwise which only delays the process in trying to figure out motive and intent.
I am a retired law enforcement officer and I approached every situation especially a traffic stop that the person inside the car wants to kill me and I have a plan to kill them before they kill me until proven otherwise. I lived by the motto. Be nice to everyone but have a plan to kill everyone to meet should the need arise to do so
Sal’s WGWS has become one of my favorite YouTube channels. You can see world crises shaping up from what’s going on with shipping. I never would have guessed the maritime world would be as interesting as it’s turned out to be.
Another great channel is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/@UnauthorizedHistoryPacificWar
The ship dropped anchor on the port (left) side?
It looks like that took her right into the pilon. Why not drop the anchor on the starboard (right) side to turn her away from that pilon?
As soon as he finishes breast-feeding.
Pete Buttigieg: "I've always thought this was a bridge too far."
That doesn't sound bad, but when you get all traffic re-routed through that one spot, travel might end up being seriously delayed, not to mention if an accident occurs on that route.
How long ago was that landslide in Washington? I can't imagine having to detour 100 miles. That must have been horrible.
I’ve been in a ship banging at anchor miragoane Haiti
Watched inebriated crew come in hard and curl about 12 foot of my freeboard
Owner whipped out 12,000 on the spot to buy me off
We fixed it ourselves for less than 1500 in sheet metal
Any ship has welder and tools etc on board
I thought “feel free anytime “ lol
Point is we had two minutes to watch it unfold and nothing anyone could do
He’d planned to lash maybe 40 yards off the rudimentary dock u can google earth if u like
I notice at least last pics on google earth those subordinate remote docks are still active
Not sure BBQ reach is beyond PAP and arbonite valley
Pete concerned about prolapsed tunnels.
“There’s also economic, and psychological terrorism. Doesn’t always have to be maximum immediate loss of life for them to create problems in a society.”
Perhaps, but when there is opportunity to achieve economic, psychological, and human loss in one terrorist event, then that’s what they will try to do. (9/11 did not happen overnight when the buildings were near empty, but during the morning rush our when the buildings and adjoining public spaces were near maximum capacity.)
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