PILOT SCRAMBLED TO AVOID BALTIMORE BRIDGE COLLISION
Ship had total loss of power, officials say
When a massive ship lost power on its way out of the Port of Baltimore and headed toward a major bridge, the pilot ordered its rudder turned hard to the left and its left anchor dropped in an effort to slow the vessel and stop it swinging to the right, according to the head of a national association for ship pilots.
The 985-foot container ship, known as the Dali, left Baltimore about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, bound for Sri Lanka. Clay Diamond, the executive director of the American Pilots’ Association, said the ship experienced a “full blackout” around 1:20 a.m., meaning it lost both engine power and electrical power to the ship’s control and communications systems.
The ship was travelling at 8 knots, a normal speed for the area that Diamond described as “ahead slow.” The ship never regained engine power, but Diamond said a diesel backup generator did kick in, restoring the electrical systems — the possible source of a puff of black smoke visible in video of the collision circulating on social media.
Unable to slow the ship, Diamond said the pilot, who had more than a decade of experience, radioed an emergency message to have the Francis Scott Key Bridge closed. That mayday call has been credited with saving lives.
The huge vessel struck one of the bridge’s supports, causing it to crumple and crash down into the Patapsco River. Two members of a work crew on the bridge were rescued, but another six are presumed dead, the Coast Guard said. The collision led to the closure of the Baltimore port and leaves officials facing a massive cleanup and rebuilding job.
All 22 crew members on board the Dali survived.
Diamond said he had been in constant communication with the Association of Maryland Pilots on Tuesday and that the pilot on board had given a statement to investigators from the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation.
A second pilot aboard the Dali was an apprentice who had started his training last month, Diamond said.
Diamond said it is unusual for a ship to experience a total loss of power.
“It’s not unheard of for a pilot to experience an engine casualty, it’s not that common to have a full blackout like this,” he said. “This is a complicated piece of equipment so it could be any number of causes.”
The vessel passed foreign port state inspections in June and September 2023. In the June inspection, a faulty monitor gauge for fuel pressure was rectified before the vessel departed port, Singapore’s port authority said.
On Wednesday, officials with the National Transportation Safety Board boarded the ship and planned to recover information from its electronics and paperwork, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said.
The agency also is reviewing the voyage data recorder recovered by the Coast Guard and building a timeline of what led to the crash, which federal and state officials have said appeared to be an accident.
Divers returned to the water to search for the bodies of the six missing construction workers.
The debris complicated the search, according to a Homeland Security memo described to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the document or the investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the divers faced dangerous conditions.
“They are down there in darkness where they can literally see about a foot in front of them. They are trying to navigate mangled metal, and they’re also in a place it is now presumed that people have lost their lives,” he said Wednesday.
Among the missing were people from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to diplomats from those countries. Three Mexicans were on the bridge. One was rescued, and two are missing, said Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Capt. Michael Burns Jr. of the Maritime Center for Responsible Energy said bringing a ship into or out of ports with limited room to manoeuvre is “one of the most technically challenging and demanding things that we do.”
There are “few things that are scarier than a loss of power in restricted waters,” he said.