Posted on 05/16/2024 8:16:06 AM PDT by canuck_conservative
The ship’s first power outage occurred after a crew member mistakenly closed an exhaust damper while conducting maintenance in port, causing one of its diesel engines to stall, according to the report. A backup generator automatically came on and continued to run for a short period — until insufficient fuel pressure caused it to kick off again, resulting in a second blackout.
While recovering from those power outages, crew members made changes to the ship’s electrical configuration, switching to a different transformer and set of breakers, according to safety investigators.
“Switching breakers is not unusual but may have affected operations the very next day on the accident voyage,” Homendy testified Wednesday morning before the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure...
When the breakers tripped as the Dali approached the bridge, Homendy said the ship’s emergency generator kicked on. That generator can power the ship’s lights, radio and other operations, but it can’t restore propulsion.
“Without the propeller turning, the rudder was less effective,” Homendy said. “They were essentially drifting.”
While there is redundancy built into the ship’s systems, she said it’s not unlike other vessels in terms of the functions of its emergency generator and other factors. She said investigators are working closely with Hyundai, the manufacturer of the Dali’s electrical system, to pinpoint what went wrong after it left the Port of Baltimore...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
Follow the money
The cheaper way is to ignore problems or do a quick fix
That works great
Until it doesn’t
The engineer did a download of the existing program to solve his problem to clear the locked up logic.
There were large parts of very large machines as far away as the parking lot.
"Button pushers". Management loves them because they never know enough about what they do to explain bad news.
Until......
Spend any time on big ships and this excerpt hits home. When this happened I said the multiple power losses in close succession were absolutely the most believable thing I’ve seen. Because I’ve seen it.
6 are required to pay attention. I always say....after the 6th check engine light, I start paying attention.
Obviously.
An accident 8 years ago with likely an entirely different crew. Exactly what warning signs?
Also not news. I heard about the earlier power failures a day after the crash.
Lose power in port during maintenance.
Realign electric plant to get the lights on.
Get underway in a lineup that won’t support underway load.
Leave pier and start turning on more stuff, especially steering.
Overload diesel generator.
Lose power
Shut breaker without knowing why it tripped or dumping load.
Trip breaker again.
All the while propulsion diesel is dead.
Hit bridge.
I commiserate with the ship. I always seem to cause trouble when I black out.
It is far less complicated than that. Their maintenance crew was not qualified. Probably illiterate and couldn’t read the maintenance manual.
What? Lucas wasn’t responsible for the electrical system?
I want somebody to explain to me the big belch of black diesel smoke coming out of the exhaust right before hitting the bridge? Looks to me like someone was smashing the throttle down.
“and we still don’t know who was piloting that ship”
Yes they do know who was piloting the ship. The Harbor pilot and the Port pilot were both on board and the USCG has radio recordings of them in command and the multiple mayday signals they sent out that saved lives by telling the highway patrols at each end of the bridge to shut down traffic. This ship was in poor repair and had a cascade failure of it’s electrical and engineering systems. I just love Qtard tinfoil nonsense it’s a hoot that people get into that stuff. Every ship leaving a US harbor has two master pilots on board, this ship was no different and they according to the audio transcripts tried valiantly to warn people and get power back on.
Well sure. There’s that too :).
Never seen a diesel start after a trip eh? Can’t mash the throttle if the propulsion diesel is down. That was an attempt to restart it. They were too late.
They managed to get a message out to the Maryland State Police, who blocked 695 on either end of the bridge, so that it was clear of most traffic by the time it got hit.
There is a YouTube video by the Chief Engineer on a sister ship to the Dali. He walked through the redundant systems on the ship designed to ensure that there was always rudder control, both local and from the bridge. IIRC, there were about four completely independent systems, each automatically backing the other in the event one or some of the others went offline. It seemed impressively fail-safe, and yet look what happened. The failure of training, maintenance, and, ultimately bad luck, must have been colossal for the accident to happen as it did.
I drive OLD IRON-—
NO ENGINE LIGHTS
REAL GAUGES that register : amps /temp/ oil pressure-—NOT IDIOT LIGHTS
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