Hopefully few on bridge but vehicles went in the water so there will be loss of life. Prayers for folks there.
Turns out that the loss of power problem which led to it striking the Scott Key bridge was not a total surprise...
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The 9-year-old container ship had passed previous inspections during its time at sea, but during one such inspection in June at the Port of San Antonio in Chile, officials discovered a deficiency with its "propulsion and auxiliary machinery (gauges, thermometers, etc)," according to the Tokyo MOU, an intergovernmental maritime authority in the Asia-Pacific region.
The report provided no other information about the deficiency except to note that it was not serious enough to remove the ship from service.
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This event will be tied up in courts for a very long time and the costs are sure to be measured in billions...
https://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20240326/NEWS06/912363478/Bridge-collapse-losses-could-run-into-billions-Sources#:~:text=London%2Dbased%20marine%20mutual%20insurer,coverage%20in%20place%2C%20sources%20said.
Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/03/26/baltimore-bridge-collapse-ship-dali/73105394007/
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conceivably protect against errant cargo ships. Not sure it will work but for the Key Bridge to not have a fender system seems crazy.
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Tampa had the same issue in 1978. A freighter hit the old Sunshine Skyway bridge in a squall, knocked it down, cars and a Greyhound bus dropped 100 feet, 30-ish killed. The replacement bridge was constructed with a long shallow area around the piers anchored by huge rebar enforced casements. A freighter would need to be doing 25 knots to get to those piers.
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All the lights went off. Maybe rudder was stuck?
…outage you see.
Should have called for tugs the moment they could not hold course which was long before they got to that proximity with bridge support. Maybe they did…
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Not certain when they board or leave vessels in Baltimore but think it would include piloting past bridge.
You can’t bring a ship into any US harbor of any significance without a local pilot.
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The bridge crosses a wide point of water, what one might describe as the mouth of the harbor.
Wondering if the harbor pilots board the ships further north???
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Link: What we know about Baltimore bridge collapse
That pilot relinquished his license though.
This vessel, the Dali, was involved in a collision in Antwerp in 2016.
This doesn't smell like human-error though.
No info yet, could be an unlucky mechanical failure, might be pilot error. We’ll have to wait.
And is now probably completely blocking the entire port of Baltimore
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Engineers that designed that bridge weren’t considering this event.
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