[News] Baltimore Key Bridge

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Serious ship malfunction then

Smoke from the chimney - and looking at the clip on the BBC, the ship seems pretty engulfed in black smoke - so could have been an explosion which could have been caused by terrorists - but to time an explosion at precisely the moment to cause the collision with the bridge? Pushing it a bit, I'd have thought.

Still, I do half expect Trump to be along in a minute to tell us who did it - Mexican terrorists perhaps, so he'll have a mandate for his wall?

It wouldn’t really require any sort of precise timing, any explosion, terror related or just a tragic accident, on a ship that size when it’s moving through a port is going to have a devastating effect. They are hard enough to stop when you’ve got full control, disable any part of the control system and everyone on board is a passenger helpless to stop the ship and it is going to hit the first thing that is in its path.

Some good news that two people have been pulled from the water alive. One miraculously uninjured but the second person has been rushed to hospital in a serious condition.

 

[GT49er]

It wouldn’t really require any sort of precise timing, any explosion, terror related or just a tragic accident, on a ship that size when it’s moving through a port is going to have a devastating effect. They are hard enough to stop when you’ve got full control, disable any part of the control system and everyone on board is a passenger helpless to stop the ship and it is going to hit the first thing that is in its path.

At least the ship's crew (including the two pilots) are all safe, so the evidence of what happened should be more easily available than it otherwise might have been.

 

[Motogull]

What a horrible event. Because of The Wire, I have fond thoughts of Baltimore.

I would have thought that if the boat was in trouble, they would have radioed ahead to get the bridge closed.

Everything crossed for minimal casualties.

That has stuffed the ports for a while until the debris is cleared. That was the most easterly bridge too. One hell of an insurance claim coming.

 

[dazzer6666]

When the 9/11 news first broke it was "a small plane has hit the WTC" it was a good few minutes later before it started to become a 'bigger' thing. The media has changed massively since then.
I really hope that this isn't terror related.
Thoughts go to all involved.

Publicly stating that although investigation is open there is currently ‘no suggestion of a deliberate act’. They’ll already have plenty of detail from those on board.

 

[Zeberdi]

From the BBC:

"Its speed steadily increased and it maintained a straight route south east along the Patapsco River.
Then at 01:25 MarineTraffic data shows that the ship suddenly diverted from its straight course and began to slow down.
Around this time, video shows that all lights on the exterior of the ship suddenly turned off and smoke began emanating smoke from the ship's funnel."

Sounds like possibly a serious ship malfunction?

I agree - and not the sort of MO you expect from terrorists ( who target the maximum number of civilians with the least amount of resources not barely populated bridges in the middle of the night).

As I said above -even a malfunction in the steering/navigation- a huge cargo ship would take around 4 miles to stop after an emergency brake - (about half an hour if going 16-20knots) so little a captain could do in that situation - you are at the mercy of momentum.

 

[Scappa]

Maybe just perspective of the clip, but the ship looks too big to get under it anyway to me?

Definitely the perspective. Here's a screen shot from Google map street view from the roadway on the bridge - those car transport ships are colossal and fit under the spans with ease.

Here's a drone view from a similar trajectory to the news footage pointing towards the cranes visible in the night time video of the collision (The direction arrow in the satellite view pane has been oriented incorrectly - it's pointing about 120 degrees clockwise the wrong direction). It looks to have hit the nearest of the two central supports:

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Definitely the perspective. Here's a screen shot from Google map street view from the roadway on the bridge - those car transport ships are colossal and fit under the spans with ease.

View attachment 179479
Here's a drone view from a similar trajectory to the news footage pointing towards the cranes visible in the night time video of the collision (The direction arrow in the satellite view pane has been oriented incorrectly - it's pointing about 120 degrees clockwise the wrong direction). It looks to have hit the nearest of the two central supports:
View attachment 179481

Here’s an image of a ship similar to that in your first image passing under the bridge. Plenty of space to spare. This is the busiest port in the Eastern seaboard of the US, thousands of ships would have passed under that bridge every week.

 

[Zeberdi]

Great images - However it was not an issue with the height of the bridge - the drone video and news reports clearly show that the vessel crashed into the pylon support which caused the bridge to collapse.

 

[beorhthelm]

i retrospect those pillars for the bridge look extraordinarily vulnerable, a lot of reliance on ships not crashing into them. reckon there's going to be a lot of engineering around bridges in next few years.

 

[WATFORD zero]

i retrospect those pillars for the bridge look extraordinarily vulnerable, a lot of reliance on ships not crashing into them. reckon there's going to be a lot of engineering around bridges in next few years.

If it is some sort of mechanical failure, there wouldn't be many Bridge supports around the world that would withstand a ship that size/weight hitting them head on

 

[dazzer6666]

If it is some sort of mechanical failure, there wouldn't be many Bridge supports around the world that would withstand a ship that size/weight hitting them head on

This. 100,000+ tonnes travelling at maybe 15 knots ?

 

[Algernon]

If it's the same ship it has previous:
Report and video

 

[drew]

If it's the same ship it has previous:
Report and video

It does seem to be the Dali but reports suggesting it lost propulsion shortly before hitting the bridge which might explain why it went off course.

 

[BrightonCottager]

An expert bridge designer has just been on R4 and said that the size of ship wasn't even envisaged when the bridge was opened, the opening was very narrow and there were no protectors around the bases of the supports which are a standard part of bridge design nowadays.

 

[Guinness Boy]

From BBC:

"An unclassified memo from the government agency CISA - the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency - has confirmed that the Singapore-flagged vessel Dali "lost propulsion" and collided with "a supporting tower of the bridge"."

 

[Guinness Boy]

From the Governor's news conference, the ship issued a Mayday message and had lost power. This allowed officials to stop flow of traffic on to the bridge.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

From the Governor's news conference, the ship issued a Mayday message and had lost power. This allowed officials to stop flow of traffic on to the bridge.

That won't stop the conspiracy theorists and anti-everything people!

 

[hans kraay fan club]

From the Governor's news conference, the ship issued a Mayday message and had lost power. This allowed officials to stop flow of traffic on to the bridge.

Fair play to them. Devastating that they couldn't get the maintenance crews off though.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

What a horrible event. Because of The Wire, I have fond thoughts of Baltimore.

I would have thought that if the boat was in trouble, they would have radioed ahead to get the bridge closed.

Everything crossed for minimal casualties.

That has stuffed the ports for a while until the debris is cleared. That was the most easterly bridge too. One hell of an insurance claim coming.

First thing I thought of when I heard

 

[gripper stebson]

...but was the captain vaccinated? We NEED to know.