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It is not clear how long after the collision it collapsed. Visibility looks fine at the time of the collapse.
Holy shit indeed. The amount of energy in one of those massive container ships going at a few knots is terrifying.
It is not clear how long after the collision it collapsed.
Looks pretty much instantaneous to me, even with sped-up footage.
https://twitter.com/S_K_Mar/status/1772532627599188092
Up to 20 vehicles fallen into the water says the BBC who're are calling it a mass casualty event
It is not clear how long after the collision it collapsed.
Looks pretty much immediately I think. It went down unbelievably fast, very finely balanced structures.
Only positive is it wasn’t a busier time of day.
From the pics there are no man made islands around the piers to protect them. They must go straight in to deep water for the ship not to groumd first - this would be a risk factor folks would have been awsre of?
Looks pretty clear to me, it went down instantly.
looks like it's made of matchsticks when it collapses but when you look on google maps its pretty chunky girdering!
though it is quite rusty in places 😕
Horrible. You can see the headlights of vehicles on the deck as it falls down. Poor sods didn't have a chance :-/
The ship appears to lose power prior to the collision, and then regain it. Several hundred thousand tonnes of ship takes some stopping/alter course.
And the ships crew unaccounted for, pretty gruesome to consider what might have happened to them also.
That’s terrible so fast too, seems to what appear to be works vehicles on the bridge too. Thoughts with those involved
greyspoke
And the ships crew unaccounted for, pretty gruesome to consider what might have happened to them also.
Not according to the BBC:
Posted at 8:378:37
No injuries among ship crew, company says
Shipping company Synergy Marine Group confirms that its Singapore-flagged container ship 'Dali' has collided with a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
"Whilst the exact cause of the incident is yet to be determined, the 'Dali' has now mobilised its Qualified Individual Incident response service," it says.
All crew members, including the two pilots who were aboard, have been accounted for and there are no reports of any injuries, it adds.
This is awful 😌
Don't those big ships usually have a local on board when entering our leaving port?
My wife's from Baltimore and we've driven over that bridge, horrendous stuff, just a horrible horrible accident.
Kinda glad it wasn't a Chinese ship....
There were two pilots onboard according to the Beeb.
How long before the conspiracy theorists claim it was a terrorist attack?
Was going to say surely this would have been under the contol of a local pilot not the ships master?! How the heck has a guy with all the local knowledge made such a monumental cock up? Blind faith in a malfuctioning gps?
Grim way to go-thoughts for all involved.
Don’t those big ships usually have a local on board when entering our leaving port?
The quote from the shipping company mentions two pilots.
Cant imagine how horrific it would have been for the poor sods on the bridge. The only "plus" is that didnt happen during rush hour. I assume the bridge would be absolutely packed then.
That's horrific. It's just incredible how vulnerable a bridge is to impact on one pier. And the obvious question as to why the pier is not better protected. How the pilots got it so wrong is going to be a tough question for them to answer.
How long before the conspiracy theorists claim it was a terrorist attack?
Yeah, they're already in full swing. It's an interesting phenomenon to watch.
Wow, that's terrible. Shocking how fast it goes after being knocked off the pillar.
How long before the conspiracy theorists claim it was a terrorist attack?
Quicker than you can think that! See the Xitter post above:
Is it me or this looks very deliberate
It's you mate 🙄
"That’s horrific. It’s just incredible how vulnerable a bridge is to impact on one pier. And the obvious question as to why the pier is not better protected. How the pilots got it so wrong is going to be a tough question for them to answer"
America has quite a poor track record with bridge safety. It wouldn't surprise me if no one had thought about risk assessments... Considering it's quite obviously a navigation risk
How the heck has a guy with all the local knowledge made such a monumental cock up? Blind faith in a malfuctioning gps?
Neither...... a simple power failure or loss of power to the drive would be enough. It's a river and there will be a current that will take over fairly quickly and they were far enough away from the docks that any tugs would have been unable to get there in time.
As said, once a ship this size starts to go off course then it takes time and space to get it back on course - neither of which were available.
Not only is there the terrible loss of life but the bridge (and the ship if it sinks) is now blocking the only access to the port which can no longer function.
It's going to take quite some time to open up the channel again.
Christ, life is fragile.
Just to show the size of the bridge, and its quite small supports, this pic shows it:
^^ ok, must confess it's a damned site bigger than it looks in the video!
Big bridge over busy shipping lane and no pier collision protection in place as is common on this side of the pond. Looks like that could easily have been avoided with better safety standards.
You can see that it angles for the channel, but there's a strong wind coming from the side (smoke stack) and as soon as it's broadside to the wind, it stops moving toward the channel and starts moving back toward the pillar. It looks to me like they didn't account for the wind and thus didn't power far enough toward the channel to avoid being pushed back into the pillar. Pilot(s) error?
but there’s a strong wind coming from the side
That water looks pretty glassy to me and the smoke isn't moving much. The smoke is interesting though as I think ship engines smoke more when just started - may indicate a loss o power that came back too late.
It looks to me like they didn’t account for the wind
It had two pilots on board who do this day in day out on that piece of water - I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's pretty doubtful.
How long before the conspiracy theorists claim it was a terrorist attack?
The conspiracy theorists would be claiming its a government false flag attack.
Here are a couple of nice drone shot photosphere on Google maps showing the scale of the bridge
https://maps.app.goo.gl/k2HVX9Yk4vq3jiiq7
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PLGWKULXTE5kNfJT9
And a Streetview on the bridge
https://maps.app.goo.gl/BAsT8g34LBPpvW177
It is/was a big one.
Also, an amazing lack of edge protection for those crossing the bridge when compared to European bridges.
<quote>The smoke is interesting though as I think ship engines smoke more when just started</quote>
I reckon the smoke was a full throttle reverse
pedlad
Full Member
Was going to say surely this would have been under the contol of a local pilot not the ships master?! How the heck has a guy with all the local knowledge made such a monumental cock up? Blind faith in a malfuctioning gps?
From what I have read (which is wholly unreliable) the ship lost power multiple times, so they could not control it
Seems it was an old ship, and was involved in a collision in the past too.
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 from the ship's funnel. [BBC]
Oh right..... there you go. Power failure and a maybe a restart but too late.
Looks like they had a black out and lost control.
Back in my day, we would of had the anchors cleared away and crew standing by to drop them if required.
Although dropping a big anchor out of the "pipe" is pretty scary shit, so maybe they delayed in making that call.
Looking at the chart of the area, it's very shallow outside of the channel and I'm surprised it didn't ground before it hit the pillar.
I am slightly surprised that they don’t negotiate that bridge with tugboats for a ship that size. Suppose it would slow down passage too much.
I hope the rescuers get everyone safely out of the water but that's unlikely.
There is nothing unusual about the bridge design; comments about 'flimsy supports' lack engineering credibility.
As for pier protection, can anyone provide examples on bridges which span major shipping channels?
The span between the central piers is 1150' and the ship had a maximum width of 150' so it was about 500' off the centre line.
I'm calling either human error and/or technical failure.
Someone on the deck must have seen they were way off-line in a shipping channel. Was there no ship-to-shore radio messaging warning of an imminent collision?
I’m surprised it didn’t ground before it hit the pillar.
Or hit the 'protective island in the middle of the other span (plus there seems to be a large pillar in the water in line with the bridge pillar).
Edit: ignore that..... the island was quite a distance away.
Was there no ship-to-shore radio messaging warning of an imminent collision?
Very likely between the ship and the harbour authorities but only when it was too late, and I guess the latter would then have to get the police to close the bridge which would have taken time.
It's a narrow channel, the ship wasn't "way off course".
It only took seconds for the ship to drift out of the channel when power was lost.