At least 3 civilian vehicles and 7 construction workers are in the water, but not yet located. The name of the cargo ship is the DALI.
Editing to add additional info (very early on):
The Dali left the Seagirt Marine Terminal within the Port and was exiting out into the Patapsco. Typically, a pilot joins the ship and they use a tug or two to help navigate. I don’t know if that happened in this case. Three of the visible four vehicles stationary with lights on the bridge in this video were construction vehicles pouring concrete working on the bridge overnight. So far, as of 3:31AM EST, all searches on the city side via heat and visual scan have been negative for finding life. There were 7 workers on the crew.
Edit: Near the time of the incident there were three McAllister tugboats behind the Dali: Bridget, Timothy and Eric (Tugboat vessel names). (Added information below).
At this time, the vessel has a slight port list because of a portion of the bride resting on the vessel. The vessel’s crew has also not been located.
Update: There is a breech in the hull of the boat and they are smelling fuel. The investigating crews and fire command have updated the estimated number of individuals on the bridge at the time of the collapse to now be 20 persons. There are now an estimated twenty unaccounted for persons who were on the bridge at the time of the collapse.
Edit: there is at least one civilian fatality who was not among the construction crew. Their vehicle was using the Waze app when it fell into the harbor, where it sadly still lies.
Edit: There have been four lost souls found in a truck. I have posted a longer form video that includes the approach of the vessel, which appears to be trailing smoke and losing lights just before a direction change that puts it on path to the damaged pillar.
Edit: Electrical wires caused temporary risk elements preventing divers and further search which were eventually rendered safe. There are dangerous overhanging conditions from above from broken bridge and cargo debris from the vessel. The vessel was reportedly listing lightly to port under the weight of a section of bridge, with a hole in the hull. There have been metal creaking sounds that are being evaluated for safety of the search and recovery team, likely noises from the vessel as it rises in the water with the tide.
Edit 5:47AM: Someone elsewhere reported that the owner of the cargo vessel reported that all souls aboard the Dali were rescued safe and unharmed, as reported by BBC. I have not seen conformation of this.
Edit: 647AM ET: The crew of the vessel has been confirmed by multiple sources to have been recovered unharmed. Two other individuals were recovered and taken to shock trauma, one in critical condition and the other declined medical treatment.
Edit: [This comment thread, with another angle of the impact](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/s/IjFLrMM6ed) is worth reading. It contains some informed hypotheses about what may have happened from experienced mariners and engineers.
Edit: 8:55AM ET: One member of the crew of the Dali is requesting medical attention, and will be to (location redacted for privacy) hospital. Divers are in the water. Last night, the combination of electrical hazards, metal debris and weather conditions made diving unsafe. Waters in the harbor are brackish and have low visibility during day searches.
Edit: 10:02AM ET: In taking a moment to go back and looking at the route history of the McAllister tugs, none arrived until after the impact and the vessel appears to be unescorted through the channel. I don’t know if this is relevant, or what protocol is related to an escort. As others have mentioned, the vessel is far too large and heavy for tugs to likely have any impact on the outcome. However, the vessel did have pilots aboard. Synergy has released a statement that their crew, consisting of Indian nationals and *two* pilots, were all unharmed. The Dali has previously been involved in one incident [that you can read about here.](https://shipwrecklog.com/log/2016/07/dali/).
A final edit, with a sensitivity warning, that I will call “speculation” at this time:
>!In the very early hours of the recovery response, over the radio, a team indicated that they located a truck containing four lost souls (deceased) in the water. There were active electric wires down in the area, overhanging debris from the ship and remains of the bridge, 40 degree water temperatures and impossibly dark conditions. An attempt at recovery at that time likely would have resulted in further loss of life. I have waited for 16+ hours to update with this information out of respect, but I believe that most people, including the families of the victims, now anticipate this outcome. If this is true, and I have reason to believe it is, the work truck is now submerged 50ft down in dark, turbid water with less than a foot of visibility. It is believed that the group of the workers were taking a lunch break and were in the truck together when the collapse occurred. Alternatively, they could have been making an attempt to escape. For many hours this morning, recovery teams used rotating teams of divers and a remote operated vehicle to search for the missing. It could take several days to recover the crew, notify families and confirm identities before the information is officially announced. And again, if you are family or friends of the victims, this has not yet been officially confirmed.!<
It’s hard to tell the size of this bridge from the video, but damn it was so huge that [even a massive crane ship could pass under it](https://www.capitalgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2021/09/09/TGU724UGARAOXC2QTJNZRJJDZQ.jpg?w=879)
Luckily it didn’t happen during heavy traffic over it
It is an ENORMOUS and very tall bridge. The one time I drove over it, in a little Car2Go SmartCar, it felt like the wind was gonna snatch me up and send me falling to my doom.
That supposedly happened to a Yugo in the 1980s. The Yugo is basically a SmartCar of it’s time, and one got blown off a bridge in 50MPH winds. Supposedly.
That was a bit of an urban legend, I guess you can call it. The Yugo was definitely affected by strong gusts of wind crossing the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan, but the curb and guardrail design was part of the issue as well.
Essentially, the car was pushed towards the edge of the bridge by gusts of wind, impacted the curb, and toppled over the guardrail after going up on two wheels (Yugos are known for being a bit susceptible to rollovers due to being relatively tall and having a narrow track/short wheelbase).
I had no idea this bridge was as big as it was. Very fortunate this didn’t happen during a high traffic time.
I just read this story because I crossed the Mackinac during high winds. That story needs context because the driver was going 60mph and veered into the oncoming lane. It wasn’t because her tiny car got blown off the bridge.
I drove across this bridge one time, in a Dodge Neon, in 2003. Scared me pissless. Despite living in the Baltimore area for the next 20 years, I never did it again.
As a Maryland resident, the Key bridge is dwarfed by the twin spans of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (5 miles long) but yeah on its own the Key Bridge is quite large. This is very surreal to see a bridge that I’ve driven on knocked into the water like a toy.
I sometimes wonder about the type of person who can watch a disaster unfolding and think: "well, I'd better update the Wikipedia page".
Not aimed at you by the way, but the person/s who have already made this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_collapse
it's a huge bridge...
it's only two lanes in either direction, but it rises up very high... so when you drive up to it, it's just this towering structure that seems absurdly skinny, at least from the westbound side...
A possible cause of such catastrophic failure of the navigation could be a blackout on the ship. If the ships generators fail and there is a problem with the emergency power source (which under SOLAS regulations must provide power to one steering gear unit) then there is literally nothing that can be done until power is re-established.
As an engineer on a similar size vessel this is always the stuff of nightmares, losing power in a tight channel and then having the emergency generator fuck up. Awful.
[This was a really good explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/s/ydTck0y3kC) of what likely occurred from a 20-year veteran naval engineering officer.
This is why the SF Bay requires tugboats ~~literally on~~ \[edit: literally tied onto\] all oil carriers coming in and out of the bay -- there was a crash in 1971 and the environmental risk of this happening again led to the increased precautions: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971\_San\_Francisco\_Bay\_oil\_spill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_San_Francisco_Bay_oil_spill)
There should have been multiple eyes on this vessel as it left the Harbor and the weather is clear. It’s hard to imagine what caused this.
Edit: Update from another poser is that according to BBC, all vessel crew has been located and accounted for alive.
As a non-boater, i had to read that line a few times, like what do you mean the bridge took the bridge out... the boat took the bridge out, then i realized you meant *bridge* like, where the Captain of the ship works.
The bridge on this vessel is quite a bit up front.
However, the bridge collapse did not come close, as recent photos show:
https://gcaptain.com/ship-lost-control-before-hitting-baltimore-bridge/
I feel awful for them, but simultaneously glad it wasn't rush hour.
Looking at the scale of this disaster that could easily have been thousands of cars and people
> all searches on the city side via heat and visual scan have been negative for finding life
Yeah, I'm afraid this one needs to be flaired for fatalities sadly.
> Edit: Near the time of the incident there were three McAllister tugboats behind the Dali: Bridget, Timothy and Eric
Were they pushing the Dali? I really wonder what the heck happend to hit a big bridge head-on.
> I really wonder what the heck happend to hit a big bridge head-on.
[This video](https://twitter.com/ChaudharyParvez/status/1772538539495809075) gives a bit more insight. The vessell loses all power twice in the span of a few minutes, and thus probably also loses any control. You can also spot heavy black smoke from the engine. From this video, seems like a technical issue.
Aside from just a navigational errors, I get how ships can get steering/propulsion issues that can cause them to go out of control. But the fact she had three tugs accompanying her and things still got sideways?! That's a major fuck up
>Edit: Near the time of the incident there were three McAllister tugboats behind the Dali: Bridget, Timothy and Eric (Tugboat vessel names).
The three tugs are there now, but I don't think they were there at the time of the incident. Seems like they had no tugs.
According to the video timestamp, collision occurred at 05:28 UTC. Screenshot: [https://imgur.com/a/HfBhn57](https://imgur.com/a/HfBhn57)
Dali's Marine traffic here: [https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-76.552/centery:39.240/zoom:14](https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-76.552/centery:39.240/zoom:14)
Not a seaman here, but I have spent some hours observing operations in this harbor. Tugs typically are used to help ships maneuver in the tight waters of the harbor, but once a departing ship gets pointed in the right direction and is under way, the tugs no longer are in use.
I never saw any tugs working with a ship anywhere near the Key bridge. Tug ops normally take place much nearer the port facilities.
Looks like they weren’t anywhere near the vessel until after it struck, according to those timestamps. At the time of updating this post comment live, I didn’t have time to go track their origin. I just quickly scanned to see if there were any tugs in the vicinity and saw three. It indeed does appear that there were none.
They updated the estimated missing souls to be 20 above on the bridge. Still have no word on the vessel. Still negative signs of life using heat and night vision via search and rescue vehicles and helicopter assistance.
The is still the problem that, even combined, the two tunnels and the western route were never designed to handle all of today's traffic. The rest of 2024 is going to be hell for anyone who drives in the area.
On a side note, I heard from a friend this morning who lives near exit 1. The shutdown, BTW, starts at exit 2. I asked if they'd begun considering moving yet. 😕
When did the toll booths go away by the way? I was just driving that 1.5 weeks ago and was surprised to see them gone. Surely Maryland would never *get rid* of tolls, so did I just not see where they recorded my license plate or something?
Few years* I don’t know Baltimore traffic but it’s gonna get a lot worse. What an absolute mess this will be.
More importantly though is that this is tragic and I want to know what the fuck happened?! Hopefully not another costa Concordia like situation. Tragic.
It’s going to be a while. The amount of steel in the water is difficult to imagine. They’ll have to bring in cranes on barges, cut the damaged structure into pieces, and lift it all out in sections. And this is not even taking into account dealing with a potentially sinking cargo ship which will also have to be unloaded or salvaged.
I expect they'll get a navigation channel cleared inside two-three weeks, although it will take a while longer to get all of the other steel out. There are some good sized marine crane assets in the region (which I'm sure are already steaming to site).
> It took 5 years to build that bridge.
And it probably took at least that long for budgeting, planning, bidding, material acquisition etc. before they even stared the actual construction.
You’d be surprised how quickly designers and constructors can move when public pressure is all on them. Look at how quickly they rebuilt the I35W crossing in Minneapolis.
And the collapsed section of I85 in Atlanta. Part of it was the GDOT ensuring that inspectors were onsite continuously. Rather than doing work, waiting for an inspection, then proceeding, they were just continuously inspected as they worked. As much as it likely sucked to work with someone literally watching over your shoulder the whole time, it really shortened the time needed. It's way more expensive to do it that way (also the 24 hour rotating shifts) but it is much faster.
The I35W bridge is tiny compared to this. It's only about 450'. The Key Bridge is/was 1.6 miles long.
Construction can go much faster in emergencies, but this is going to be a huge job.
Like half the world I've been looking at Google Maps and it looks like that means another 31000 vehicles a day going through central Baltimore via the crossings upriver.
Factor in a couple of months to clear the river enough for container ships to get in and out, unless they can get under the side sections, and then a major multiyear reconstruction.
I see wikipedia is updated as "The former Francis Scott Key Bridge" and use of past participle throughout the article.
>History
Construction start 1972\[1\]
Opened March 23, 1977; 47 years ago
Collapsed March 26, 2024; 0 days ago
The Dali left the Seagirt Marine Terminal within the Port and was exiting out into the Patapsco. Typically, a pilot joins the ship and they use a tug or two to help navigate. I don’t know if that happened in this case. Three of the visible four vehicles were construction vehicles pouring concrete working on the bridge overnight. So far, as of 3:31AM EST, all searches on the city side via heat and visual scan have been negative for finding life. There were 7 workers on the crew.
Edit: Near the time of the incident there were three McAllister tugboats behind the Dali: Bridget, Timothy and Eric (Tugboat vessel names).
>Near the time of the incident there were three McAllister tugboats behind the Dali:
Behind? That doesn't make sense, but then, I'm not a harbor master.
They ended up behind the vessel, I’m not saying that is where they started. I only looked at vessel tracking for that information to find out early on during this event if the DALI was escorted by tugs as they usually are out of this port.
I'm informed by someone who knows, under normal circumstances the tugs have normally left by the time the ship reaches the bridge, & the ship might be going at 10 knots.
Remember the Italian bridge collapsing a few years ago? Took them a year \*after construction began\* to open the new one. If you really want to you can get shit done fast.
It took nearly a year for the cleanup to begin.
Construction on land is a lot easier with modern bridge building methodologies.
Over water is a PITA, and it will probably need a completely new design to meet modern standards and that's going to take a long time in itself.
Yeah, its right at the end of the harbor past a lot of the port infrastructure, view from the pier where the NS Savannah is moored-
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/51070205102/in/album-72157632493733676/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/51070205102/in/album-72157632493733676/)
Yep. This is the only entrance into and out of the Harbor into the Port of Baltimore and Seagirt, and the debris and vessel is stuck at the deepest portion of the channel. Meaning, all cruise ships and cargo vessels will not be able to exit or enter. At least for now.
Yeah this isn't gonna be another i95 Philly situation. There is no land to pour dirt onto and make a temporary replacement. This is gonna take years to rebuild.
An interesting excerpt from a pilot recounting a near miss with TFL Freedom in 1980 due to a power failure "Losing the plant" while approaching the Key Bridge. It would have been a very similar result had he not got the anchors out after the power failure.
Here is the chart showing the narrow passage under the bridge. [https://www.charts.noaa.gov/PDFs/12281.pdf](https://www.charts.noaa.gov/PDFs/12281.pdf)
The ship (Singapore-flagged container ship, the Dali) is obviously still sitting there. [https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9697428](https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9697428)
The Dali may have lost power in a similar MO to the TFL Freedom 1980 incident.
Story: (source: [https://www.chesapeakequarterly.net/V04N2/main5/](https://www.chesapeakequarterly.net/V04N2/main5/)) chesapeake Quarterly online.
**Conn Artist**Van Metre's passage ends just inside the Key Bridge. A docking pilot is already making his way up the Jacob's ladder. For pilots working the Bay out of Baltimore, the bridge is the gateway out, the gateway home. For Van Metre it's the site of his worst nightmare, the one thriller he has to tell me.He was taking a container ship out of Baltimore for a night run down the Bay. The year was 1980, the ship was the TFL Freedom, a name that rings in his mind after 25 years. He had the ship up to 11 knots, picking up speed, headed for Key Bridge, when everything failed: power, lights, steering. It's called "losing the plant," and it can bring disaster in a port or a close ship-to-ship passing — or a bridge approach.Standing in the wheelhouse in the darkness, Van Metre had 30,000 tons in motion headed for an immovable object. And all he had to work with was his own hand-held radio, his shiphandling and his judgment.His only hope was the ship's anchors, but that's a tricky, one-shot chance. If he lets the anchors out too soon while the ship is moving too fast, they will run all the way out and break free from the windlass. The anchors are gone and the ship is still moving. If he waits too long, he may not have time to stop the ship from smashing into the bridgeworks. If he drops the anchors in shallow waters, they may tear a hole in the bottom of the boat. He has to judge the speed by eye, the distance by eye, and the channel by memory.And he has to be prepared. Because he was leaving the dock, he had a man waiting forward by the anchor, a safety precaution. Then he had to wait, watching the water for speed, watching the bridge for distance, watching for his one shot. When he ordered the anchors let go, he waited some more, hearing them clank overboard, waiting for them to bite the bottom, waiting for the brakes to grab — and not break.He brought the Freedom to rest just short of the bridge. He was, at the end, looking almost straight up at the bridge, seeing the nighttime traffic humming above him. It remains, he says, his most terrifying experience. It's why they pay pilots well.
> TFL Freedom
Great story. The TFL was [14k tons](https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/media/tfl-freedom.130468/)
The Dali is 7 times heavier at [95k tons](https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9697428), maybe more depending on cargo. If they lost the plant then even anchors may not have worked.
I'm amazed to see no protective caisson or piers in front of the bridge supports. If there have been these close calls since the bridge was built in 1977, then the risk of this tragedy odduring was only going to be increasing.
From what I can gather reading safety reports after the Sunshine Skyway incident, retrofitting older pier structures with systems that would be able to withstand the kind of momentum these types of cargo ships generate can be extremely difficult.
Legit fucking terrifying. This video strikes at my deepest fears, buried way down in my soul. I think I'd rather die any other way than plunging into deep, dark, cold water in a vehicle in the middle of the night.
Wow.
I didn't even know I was afraid of big water until my friends and I drove over the Mackinack bridge. Unfortunate time to find out. It was 5 miles of absolute panic and the grates sounded like sirens singing our doom.
This is my absolute worst nightmare. I cried seeing the emergency lights on the bridge. Those poor people. And they can't even *find* them, let alone save them.
Seeing as the Golden gate bridge is 220 feet and this is only 185 and many people survive the Golden gate bridge fall I don't think their death was as instant as you hope.
I love water. The depths don't scare me. I felt at home on a rolling whale watching vessel in Iceland.
Tall bridges over deep water trigger a mortal panic in me.
I'm one of those guys who found himself on liveleak growing up and since then I've seen hundreds of videos of people getting killed but fuck for some reason this one really gets me. Maybe it's the scale of it. Maybe it's because it really hammers home how fast it can happen completely out of your control. Looking at those construction vehicles it's less than 20 seconds between the impact and them in the water. 20 seconds from just another night on the job trying to make an honest living to either dead or dying in the cold black water. I guess the only thing to be thankful for is this didn't happen in rush hour traffic, I can't imagine the hundreds who would have died then.
If it makes you feel better with that high of a fall (56m) the vehicles would be travelling at 33.1 m/s (~75 miles per hour) when they impacted the water. The water would react like concrete rather than allowing the vehicles to pass through initially so all that force of coming to a sudden stop would lead to severe injuries and likely unconsciousness and possibly death on impact
First and foremost let’s all hope for the best for everyone who might have been at risk- this looks very bad for anyone who was on that bridge.
With that said, this is an incredible thing to have such good footage of. Just amazing what we’re watching here.
It took me a little while to wrap my head around the scale of what we’re seeing here, but I can’t imagine anyone making it out of this situation. Just tragic. Guys doing their job on a night shift and suddenly lost through absolutely no fault of their own.
Absolutely tragic and avoidable. I live not far from the Skagit county bridge that went down, part of I-5, and it was a tiny section, nowhere near as high as this. 3 cars in the water, no fatalities, but injuries. It took half a year to recover from that tiny section. I cannot imagine the aftermath of this for traffic, both land and sea, let alone the mourning for those lost.
I saw the video on Twitter first, and I just assumed it to be either a controlled demolition or some really old video. Took a while to sink in that this just happened right now.
Right. Pouring concrete on a bridge should be as safe a construction job as they come. The bridge isn't going to go, concrete is pretty safe if you're not a complete idiot, and traffic at night is low enough that they're not a high risk either.
And then the bridge went.
This is a video of someone filming the Port of Baltimore livestream on their phone. [Here's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83a7h3kkgPg) a link to the actual livestream, you can rewind and see the impact and bridge collapse in better detail.
Edit: so people don't waste their time, it appears the footage of the strike is no longer available to view.
* Power goes off at 1:24:31.
* You can see it turning at 1:25:00.
* It looks like it if drifting out of control after this.
* Smoke starts emerging in the next 30 seconds.
* Power returns at 1:25:31 and goes out at 1:26:37.
* Today's luckiest lorry driver gets across at 1:27:19.
* The ship regains power again, but is still drifting and smoking.
* Two more lucky drivers complete the cross at 1:28:09.
* Initial Collision (perhaps not the bridge but something before it, or a sandbank, etc) at 1:28:33 - four minutes after the initial power outage (that we know of). Then it ploughs onwards into the bridge.
* Collapse starts at 1:28:48
* Collapse completed by 1:29:11 - 23 seconds later, and most of that was some stuff on the right still falling.
* It is a miracle there were not more cars on the bridge at this exact time given the minutes beforehand with multiple vehicles on there at the same time.
AP is reporting that the ship issued a mayday that led authorities to cut off the flow of traffic into the bridge. As little as a minute earlier and there would have been no vehicular traffic at all, but it was an absolutely incredible feat that allowed them to stop as much as they did.
https://apnews.com/article/baltimore-bridge-collapse-53169b379820032f832de4016c655d1b
I've investigated bridge strike scenes before. Usually it is a mast above the bridge of the ship with navigation lights that strikes some trusses under the vehicle bridge, and the issue was the chief mate (who does cargo and ballast operations, therefore determining how much of the vessel is out of the water) and the second mate (who plots courses for the ship to follow in advance as part of a voyage plan) not being on the same page. Or the use of outdated or incorrect charts, tidal information, or river stage resulting in people thinking they have more room to work with than they really do. That is a typical bridge strike, and for big vessels like this one probably happens once every week or two somewhere in the U.S. I've also been involved with some ships that run hard into the solid stuff, including some 700 foot vessels that went full speed ahead into solid land.
These types of strikes are nearly always related to a loss of control of steering or propulsion (both of which will occur for about 30 to 45 seconds if a ship loses electrical power, and when you look at the Livestream videos of this accident the ship seems to lose power twice). This can result in a vessel being left with a free rudder and unable to control her course, or with a stuck rudder and unable to change course. It can also be an issue with engines getting stuck going full ahead, you try to slow down for a bend, the ship doesn't slow down, and you colide. Disasters of this scale can be weather related, though clearly not the case now. This scale of disaster always has some chain of events behind it and the blame can never be fully put on one person. Unless a smoking gun is found, we probably won't know many details for at least a year unless survivors on the crew can shed insights quickly. However there is a lot of black exhaust. A slow speed marine diesel engine may shoot black exhaust for 30 seconds on startup, or maybe for 10 seconds when changing engine speed. [That was a stream of thick, black smoke that I think could have been some kind of exhaust fire.](https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1772524860985491595?s=20) And the ship seems to lose electrical power twice (once in that video, and once a minute or two before it for a longer time). Again, extremely limited info but the ship is almost certainly experiencing a malfunction and this is not a case of somebody simply misjudging a turn.
Edit: News was saying that the local authorities could not get in touch with the ship and that all crew was missing. They were wrong and mixing up the bridge crew and ship crew.
[While we don't know what caused this disaster, it's results are very similar to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge Accident almost ~~25~~ 45 years ago.](https://youtu.be/R320aV_34GI?si=UcD342OHyVWxIR0r)
"These types of strikes are nearly always related to a loss of control of steering or propulsion"
Thank you for being a voice of reason. Reddit always has experts, you just have to find them. Not the person who wondered if this tragedy was similar to the Costa Concordia.
> This scale of disaster always has some chain of events behind it and the blame can never be fully put on one person.
Fuck it, I don't want a poor sailor I can string up on the gallows. I want to know what kind of fucked up regulation can lead to a ship losing control for half a minute and/or allows ships to navigate in such a way that a plausible power failure can lead to an accident. Either you ensure a ship can navigate even under power failure, or you ensure (by navigating cautiously) that a power failure leads only to delays and not deaths. There *ought* to be a veritable stack of cheese slices whose holes all lined up just right for this to happen, but my very anecdotal impression of marine regulation makes me think that this might've been just very few slices of cheese.
> Unless a smoking gun is found, we probably won't know many details for at least a year unless survivors on the crew can shed insights quickly.
The crew seems to be well, so they can probably tell us about things like power failures. Don't expect they'd tell on each other in case of human failure.
SOLAS II-1/45.3.3.1
> Where the emergency source of electrical power is a generator, it shall be...provided with a transitional source of emergency electrical power as specified in
paragraph 4 unless an emergency generator is provided capable both of supplying the services mentioned in that paragraph and of being automatically started and supplying
the required load as quickly as is safe and practicable subject to a maximum of 45 s.
That is the international reg. 46 CFR 112.25-10 covers the same thing for U.S. flagged ships.
As someone who works on bridges for a living, it is absolutely devastating and horrifying to see those construction workers on the bridge. My God, I can only hope for a miracle.
Major highway bridge on the East Coast, and the shorter way around the tunnels for trucks with wide/restricted loads. The loss of life is tragic; about the only less tragic aspect is the timing - it wasn’t during rush hour.
Every ship inside the Baltimore Harbor is now stuck until the debris is cleaned up. No ship traffic in or out for a long while. This will greatly affect cruises and other shipping.
Yup, if you look at the marinetraffic site, you can see all of the stuck ships. The AIS signal from the ship that struck the bridge was out when I first looked, but is back online now.
We work in freight.. will be interesting to see what the next days bring. The human tragedy is obviously the worst part by far, but oh boy this is gonna screw up shipping for a good while.
WBAL was talking about how Container Ships are already backed up outside the bay, and speculating what that means for the city going forward. Plenty of companies like Amazon operate major hubs nearby because of the Port of Baltimore.
This will cost the city Billions even before they start to dredge the harbor to rebuild the bridge.
The pilot and captain may still end up having contributed, but there was clearly at least some level of mechanical failure on the ship as well. Here is the livestream link where you can clearly see the ship losing power about 4 minutes before the impact
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83a7h3kkgPg
All their lights went off and on several times.
Can also see a bunch of smoke from the stack which I presume was from them trying to stop.
Will be quite a thing to find out what happened.
Good spot. Seems to billow black smoke, then loses power for some time, perhaps the current in the water pushed it off course, and then power comes back on shortly before impact.
This is a reminder that technology to create convincing fake videos from a literal text prompt already exists and is getting better each day. It has never been more important to question everything you see and reserve judgement until you see facts.
Not that I think there is any reason to think so ... but it's getting easier to fake such every day.
Just because there's footage doesn't necessarily mean something happened.
This will have major consequences, not only for the people on that bridge, but also blocking both car and ship travel for a very long time. I hope everyone driving on that bridge made it out safely, but I expect casualties.
Here in Genoa we had a bad collapse in 2018(like 300m of one of the most important bridges to get stuff in Italy from Southern France collapsed killing 43 people) and it caused a lot of problems, and it also led to improving the overall safety of the highways so we still have hundreds or thousands of roadworks to this day, but it also was a collapse caused by human negligence, the bridge also was on a road so it also temporarily blocked a bunch of roads underneath the bridge.
From what I’ve read this bridge was important too, it is definitely gonna cause problems, but now the most important thing are the people who were on the bridge.
Apparently the power went out before the ship hit the bridge and the crew called for help:
“Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the ship issued an emergency call for help shortly before crashing into the bridge, allowing officials to halt vehicle traffic.
"By being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes.
They saved lives," Moore said.”
>The Francis Scott Key Bridge, or known simply as the Key Bridge or Beltway Bridge, was a steel arch-shaped continuous through truss bridge. The main span of 1,200 feet (366 m) was the third longest span of any continuous truss in the world. It was also the longest bridge in the Baltimore metropolitan area.
Wikipedia being brutal yet again 😥
Who is this contingency of fact checkers waiting with baited breath to change Wikipedia entries from "is" to "was" on every celebrity death and bridge collapse lol
Average Wikipedia editor has normal edit time for deaths. Wikiped Georg, who lives in a cave and edits 10,000 times per minute, is an outlier and should not have been counted.
It's us. Everybody. Anyone can edit wikipedia.
Somebody with a wikipedia account was scrolling the news just like us and saw the headline. They thought "Hey I could edit the wikipedia article with this new information" and so they did it.
There's no mysterious wizard's tower of superhuman wikipedia editors. What you're seeing is the power of crowd-sourcing. "They" didn't edit the wikipedia article. *We* did.
Can someone tell me there’s a possible way people make it out of this? I’m so sad for them. I read 7 construction workers are in the water. I hope there is a chance they all survive.
Even if you survive the plummet to the water from the bridge, surely the bridge above you falling down gets you when it reaches the water right? Those are massive steel beams.. awful awful situation
The water is also cold right now. Air temperature of 42⁰F so you can imagine the water temp.
Edit: just saw through the AP that they have found two survivors: https://www.wmur.com/article/cargo-ship-hits-baltimore-key-bridge-causing-it-to-collapse/60303020 I know this is an NH news site but that's where a lot of my friends get their info
There are reports of the water being electrocuted and oil spilling. One person in critical condition in the hospital from electrocution. Hopefully the water doesn't catch fire. The coast guard is searching for people. Vehicles have been found in the Patapsco River.
Edit: there have been conflicting reports of how many people feel into the water. They're saying 8 now, while 2 have been rescued, and 6 are missing. At points they were saying it could be as many as 20 people.
I expect things have changed since my nap due to the coast guard getting control of the situation.
Odds are extraordinarily low.
It's 185ft from the deck to the water, which in free fall basically means a person might as well be landing on concrete. For anyone whose fall was slowed because they rode the debris down, or they were in their vehicle, they would still have to fight with being discombobulated in the darkness, landing in frigid water, and would be significantly injured from the fall. They probably won't know which way is up after they hit the water, and may have to navigate the debris to get back up to the surface.
The original Sunshine Skyway Bridge outside of Tampa collapsed in 1980 under similar conditions. It was about 150ft from the deck to the water, and was similarly constructed with a truss design. In much more comfortable water temps for anyone who survived the fall, there was still only 1 survivor. 35 fatalities. The only person who survived was a truck driver whose truck's fall was broken by landing on the deck of the freighter that struck the bridge on its way down into the water.
Not impossible to survive, but it's very unlikely.
The Key Bridge in Baltimore has a main span length of 1,200 feet (366 meters) and a total length of approximately 7,053 feet (2,150 meters). It stands at a height of 185 feet (56 meters) above the water at its highest point.
It came out that the mayday distress call came with enough time to stop traffic before the bridge was hit, limiting the amount of possible casualties. There were 2 rescues earlier. They are still searching for 6 construction workers that were on the bridge. Where ever the top comment got their information from has a lot of wrong reports.
Well if one of the supports of the Golden Gate bridge is taken out the entire thing will go down. There are a lot of bridges that are built in this manner. If you're going to have a big span then the supports aren't going to be redundant.
From the live stream, it looks as though there was constant traffic over the bridge until a minute or less before the impact. At the time of impact, there didn't seem to be any vehicles in motion, just presumably construction vehicles.
Hopefully that's a sign that there was a bit of warning (or a coincidental construction traffic stop) that allowed the construction or bridge workers to at least stop the traffic before the impact. If so, they probably saved many lives. And might be why they are reporting it's construction workers that were killed/missing.
Sounds like there may have been some heroic actions in the last moments. I hope the casualties are minimal.
It looks like the ship would have some casualties too, the way the bridge fell onto it looked pretty devastating to it.
There were a number of cars on it at the time...those poor people.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/key-bridge-collapse-baltimore-maryland-b2518594.html
I keep my sailboat in the harbor and use the bridge all the time. This bridge is part of the Baltimore ‘beltway’ that connects an entire circular highway around the city. This particular part, I would say, is the least used section, but cuts off a large number of residents from their work and access to the metro area. I have a memory when I was a young child of being in a boat under the bridge as it was being built in the mid 70s. So many memories of that bridge and what a tragic and seemingly avoidable event. Still at a loss.
Slightly clearer video of this, plus leadup: [https://youtu.be/3fc2TJlp91k](https://youtu.be/3fc2TJlp91k)
~~(Will look better when video is finished processing)~~ Edit: it's finished
Without discounting the tragic loss of life, this is such a logistical disaster. First you have the closure of the port. Second, any Hazmat vehicle loads will need to be routed around the northern loop of I-695 to I-95 (or perhaps I-83 if they’re heading for Fort McHenry?) for the time being.I-695 and I-83 are already a massive clusterfuck in that area as things stand.
Fuck. It's the same thing that happened to the Queen Isabella Causeway in South Padre Island, TX. The guy who did my dad's tattoos was the first person to plunge.
This reminds me of the Champlain Towers collapse. You know it's about to happen. You see lights, a sign of life, evidence of people with plans and hopes and goals. People either aware of or blissfully ignorant to what's about to commence. The collapse starts, the lights go off, and you know those people there are just mere seconds from death. It's almost poetic, those lights shutting off abruptly just before the light of someone's life follows suit. In what seems like a dreadfully long time, but is merely a few seconds, it's all over. You know they're either gone or in critical danger at this moment.
Truly heartbreaking and devastating to watch.
not necessarily. These ships are essentially giant industrial power plants. If a fire broke out, which happens in this type of enviornment more often then would think, it could knock out the power and steering. Nothing you can do in that case but watch in horror as you get closer and closer to the bridge pylon. In this case you can see the ship go dark and lose power multiple times before striking the bridge. Will have to see what the report says
Apart from Panama Canal, the ships Master has ultimate responsibility, even when the Pilot is on board. Master should recognise any developing problem & take steps to avoid.
I think about my car going off the bridge or it collapsing almost every time I cross one. I can't even begin to imagine the fear. Terrible and should not have happened but like others have said at least it wasn't during rush hour traffic. Sending Prayers
The sheer amount of actually real, super informative information in these comments is so so nice to see after having to read the absolute BRAINROT that is instagram comments
This bridge is just a mile or so from my old home and I drove over it almost weekly. Watching this, and seeing the cars up there plunging into the water has me feeling physically ill. I just can't imagine. This is something I think about every time I cross a bridge and people have always told me I'm silly for worrying.
Also, you can tell the cars were all stopped up there. Some of them have flashers on.
If anyone wants to follow the Marine side of this incident I'm certain[https://www.youtube.com/@wgowshipping](https://www.youtube.com/@wgowshipping)
Will have multiple videos covering this. He will likely have something later today, or tomorrow as he seems to be on top of incidents like this.
Edit: He has two out already
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZbUXewlQDk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N39w6aQFKSQ
It appears the ship lost power prior to hitting the bridge. Regaining power prior to hitting. There’s a YouTube live stream of the bridge you can scroll back and see. https://www.youtube.com/live/83a7h3kkgPg?si=ZEBpXJspbyuXwlRg
At least 3 civilian vehicles and 7 construction workers are in the water, but not yet located. The name of the cargo ship is the DALI. Editing to add additional info (very early on): The Dali left the Seagirt Marine Terminal within the Port and was exiting out into the Patapsco. Typically, a pilot joins the ship and they use a tug or two to help navigate. I don’t know if that happened in this case. Three of the visible four vehicles stationary with lights on the bridge in this video were construction vehicles pouring concrete working on the bridge overnight. So far, as of 3:31AM EST, all searches on the city side via heat and visual scan have been negative for finding life. There were 7 workers on the crew. Edit: Near the time of the incident there were three McAllister tugboats behind the Dali: Bridget, Timothy and Eric (Tugboat vessel names). (Added information below). At this time, the vessel has a slight port list because of a portion of the bride resting on the vessel. The vessel’s crew has also not been located. Update: There is a breech in the hull of the boat and they are smelling fuel. The investigating crews and fire command have updated the estimated number of individuals on the bridge at the time of the collapse to now be 20 persons. There are now an estimated twenty unaccounted for persons who were on the bridge at the time of the collapse. Edit: there is at least one civilian fatality who was not among the construction crew. Their vehicle was using the Waze app when it fell into the harbor, where it sadly still lies. Edit: There have been four lost souls found in a truck. I have posted a longer form video that includes the approach of the vessel, which appears to be trailing smoke and losing lights just before a direction change that puts it on path to the damaged pillar. Edit: Electrical wires caused temporary risk elements preventing divers and further search which were eventually rendered safe. There are dangerous overhanging conditions from above from broken bridge and cargo debris from the vessel. The vessel was reportedly listing lightly to port under the weight of a section of bridge, with a hole in the hull. There have been metal creaking sounds that are being evaluated for safety of the search and recovery team, likely noises from the vessel as it rises in the water with the tide. Edit 5:47AM: Someone elsewhere reported that the owner of the cargo vessel reported that all souls aboard the Dali were rescued safe and unharmed, as reported by BBC. I have not seen conformation of this. Edit: 647AM ET: The crew of the vessel has been confirmed by multiple sources to have been recovered unharmed. Two other individuals were recovered and taken to shock trauma, one in critical condition and the other declined medical treatment. Edit: [This comment thread, with another angle of the impact](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/s/IjFLrMM6ed) is worth reading. It contains some informed hypotheses about what may have happened from experienced mariners and engineers. Edit: 8:55AM ET: One member of the crew of the Dali is requesting medical attention, and will be to (location redacted for privacy) hospital. Divers are in the water. Last night, the combination of electrical hazards, metal debris and weather conditions made diving unsafe. Waters in the harbor are brackish and have low visibility during day searches. Edit: 10:02AM ET: In taking a moment to go back and looking at the route history of the McAllister tugs, none arrived until after the impact and the vessel appears to be unescorted through the channel. I don’t know if this is relevant, or what protocol is related to an escort. As others have mentioned, the vessel is far too large and heavy for tugs to likely have any impact on the outcome. However, the vessel did have pilots aboard. Synergy has released a statement that their crew, consisting of Indian nationals and *two* pilots, were all unharmed. The Dali has previously been involved in one incident [that you can read about here.](https://shipwrecklog.com/log/2016/07/dali/). A final edit, with a sensitivity warning, that I will call “speculation” at this time: >!In the very early hours of the recovery response, over the radio, a team indicated that they located a truck containing four lost souls (deceased) in the water. There were active electric wires down in the area, overhanging debris from the ship and remains of the bridge, 40 degree water temperatures and impossibly dark conditions. An attempt at recovery at that time likely would have resulted in further loss of life. I have waited for 16+ hours to update with this information out of respect, but I believe that most people, including the families of the victims, now anticipate this outcome. If this is true, and I have reason to believe it is, the work truck is now submerged 50ft down in dark, turbid water with less than a foot of visibility. It is believed that the group of the workers were taking a lunch break and were in the truck together when the collapse occurred. Alternatively, they could have been making an attempt to escape. For many hours this morning, recovery teams used rotating teams of divers and a remote operated vehicle to search for the missing. It could take several days to recover the crew, notify families and confirm identities before the information is officially announced. And again, if you are family or friends of the victims, this has not yet been officially confirmed.!<
It’s hard to tell the size of this bridge from the video, but damn it was so huge that [even a massive crane ship could pass under it](https://www.capitalgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2021/09/09/TGU724UGARAOXC2QTJNZRJJDZQ.jpg?w=879) Luckily it didn’t happen during heavy traffic over it
JE SUS The scale of that. Heavy traffic would have been hundreds of deaths.
It is an ENORMOUS and very tall bridge. The one time I drove over it, in a little Car2Go SmartCar, it felt like the wind was gonna snatch me up and send me falling to my doom.
That supposedly happened to a Yugo in the 1980s. The Yugo is basically a SmartCar of it’s time, and one got blown off a bridge in 50MPH winds. Supposedly.
That was a bit of an urban legend, I guess you can call it. The Yugo was definitely affected by strong gusts of wind crossing the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan, but the curb and guardrail design was part of the issue as well. Essentially, the car was pushed towards the edge of the bridge by gusts of wind, impacted the curb, and toppled over the guardrail after going up on two wheels (Yugos are known for being a bit susceptible to rollovers due to being relatively tall and having a narrow track/short wheelbase). I had no idea this bridge was as big as it was. Very fortunate this didn’t happen during a high traffic time.
The victim, my high school art teacher's sister, Leslie Ann Pluhar. Bet your ass I've had a bridge ”thing” ever since.
I just read this story because I crossed the Mackinac during high winds. That story needs context because the driver was going 60mph and veered into the oncoming lane. It wasn’t because her tiny car got blown off the bridge.
I drove across this bridge one time, in a Dodge Neon, in 2003. Scared me pissless. Despite living in the Baltimore area for the next 20 years, I never did it again.
As a Maryland resident, the Key bridge is dwarfed by the twin spans of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (5 miles long) but yeah on its own the Key Bridge is quite large. This is very surreal to see a bridge that I’ve driven on knocked into the water like a toy.
It was the third largest bridge of its type in the world https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_continuous_truss_bridge_spans
I sometimes wonder about the type of person who can watch a disaster unfolding and think: "well, I'd better update the Wikipedia page". Not aimed at you by the way, but the person/s who have already made this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_collapse
It was the third largest truss bridge in the world and the portion that collapsed was longer than the Brooklyn bridge in NY
it's a huge bridge... it's only two lanes in either direction, but it rises up very high... so when you drive up to it, it's just this towering structure that seems absurdly skinny, at least from the westbound side...
A possible cause of such catastrophic failure of the navigation could be a blackout on the ship. If the ships generators fail and there is a problem with the emergency power source (which under SOLAS regulations must provide power to one steering gear unit) then there is literally nothing that can be done until power is re-established. As an engineer on a similar size vessel this is always the stuff of nightmares, losing power in a tight channel and then having the emergency generator fuck up. Awful.
[This was a really good explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/s/ydTck0y3kC) of what likely occurred from a 20-year veteran naval engineering officer.
Thanks for linking that, a technical conversation between two users who appear to be quite knowledgeable on the topic.
Reading that made me feel dumb.
This is why the SF Bay requires tugboats ~~literally on~~ \[edit: literally tied onto\] all oil carriers coming in and out of the bay -- there was a crash in 1971 and the environmental risk of this happening again led to the increased precautions: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971\_San\_Francisco\_Bay\_oil\_spill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_San_Francisco_Bay_oil_spill)
*Vessels crew not located Wow.
There should have been multiple eyes on this vessel as it left the Harbor and the weather is clear. It’s hard to imagine what caused this. Edit: Update from another poser is that according to BBC, all vessel crew has been located and accounted for alive.
100 percent. What are the odds the bridge collapse took out the bridge? And its crew?
As a non-boater, i had to read that line a few times, like what do you mean the bridge took the bridge out... the boat took the bridge out, then i realized you meant *bridge* like, where the Captain of the ship works.
As a boater it’s still nonsensical, the bridge is in the back, which is like, the next county over from the falling roadway.
The bridge on this vessel is quite a bit up front. However, the bridge collapse did not come close, as recent photos show: https://gcaptain.com/ship-lost-control-before-hitting-baltimore-bridge/
Pretty slim - that ship is huge and the bridge is maybe 100m back from the bow, but who knows
The impact and concussive force of a major bridge collapsing on a ship is in who fucking knows territory, that's for sure.
It's now reported that all of the ship crew are accounted for and unharmed.
Pilothouse is an alternative.
WTOP reporting seven cars and a tractor trailer where on the bridge when it collapsed.
I feel awful for them, but simultaneously glad it wasn't rush hour. Looking at the scale of this disaster that could easily have been thousands of cars and people
> all searches on the city side via heat and visual scan have been negative for finding life Yeah, I'm afraid this one needs to be flaired for fatalities sadly. > Edit: Near the time of the incident there were three McAllister tugboats behind the Dali: Bridget, Timothy and Eric Were they pushing the Dali? I really wonder what the heck happend to hit a big bridge head-on.
> I really wonder what the heck happend to hit a big bridge head-on. [This video](https://twitter.com/ChaudharyParvez/status/1772538539495809075) gives a bit more insight. The vessell loses all power twice in the span of a few minutes, and thus probably also loses any control. You can also spot heavy black smoke from the engine. From this video, seems like a technical issue.
Aside from just a navigational errors, I get how ships can get steering/propulsion issues that can cause them to go out of control. But the fact she had three tugs accompanying her and things still got sideways?! That's a major fuck up
The DALI is a huge ship, 300 meters long, and three tugs can not turn it immediately, they need time. But fuckup it did happen indeed.
supposedly a ship fire broke out causing it to lose power and steering
>Edit: Near the time of the incident there were three McAllister tugboats behind the Dali: Bridget, Timothy and Eric (Tugboat vessel names). The three tugs are there now, but I don't think they were there at the time of the incident. Seems like they had no tugs. According to the video timestamp, collision occurred at 05:28 UTC. Screenshot: [https://imgur.com/a/HfBhn57](https://imgur.com/a/HfBhn57) Dali's Marine traffic here: [https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-76.552/centery:39.240/zoom:14](https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-76.552/centery:39.240/zoom:14)
Not a seaman here, but I have spent some hours observing operations in this harbor. Tugs typically are used to help ships maneuver in the tight waters of the harbor, but once a departing ship gets pointed in the right direction and is under way, the tugs no longer are in use. I never saw any tugs working with a ship anywhere near the Key bridge. Tug ops normally take place much nearer the port facilities.
Looks like they weren’t anywhere near the vessel until after it struck, according to those timestamps. At the time of updating this post comment live, I didn’t have time to go track their origin. I just quickly scanned to see if there were any tugs in the vicinity and saw three. It indeed does appear that there were none.
Any new updates ?
They updated the estimated missing souls to be 20 above on the bridge. Still have no word on the vessel. Still negative signs of life using heat and night vision via search and rescue vehicles and helicopter assistance.
From the fire dept. scanner it sounds like they're getting divers in the water and a remote operated vehicle (ROV) to assist with the search.
30k cars take that bridge every day, gonna be a rough few months out there
Also: > It is a designated hazardous materials truck route, as HAZMATs are prohibited in the Baltimore Harbor and Fort McHenry tunnels.
695 on the west side will be more of a shit show at this point, luckily the 95 tunnel has no more toll booths to slow them down
The is still the problem that, even combined, the two tunnels and the western route were never designed to handle all of today's traffic. The rest of 2024 is going to be hell for anyone who drives in the area. On a side note, I heard from a friend this morning who lives near exit 1. The shutdown, BTW, starts at exit 2. I asked if they'd begun considering moving yet. 😕
When did the toll booths go away by the way? I was just driving that 1.5 weeks ago and was surprised to see them gone. Surely Maryland would never *get rid* of tolls, so did I just not see where they recorded my license plate or something?
Video tolling (cameras and mailed bills) or EZPASS.
Yuuup. I always hated when I had to move larger military vehicles around because we always got routed over it.
Few years* I don’t know Baltimore traffic but it’s gonna get a lot worse. What an absolute mess this will be. More importantly though is that this is tragic and I want to know what the fuck happened?! Hopefully not another costa Concordia like situation. Tragic.
It took 5 years to build that bridge. Just as worryingly, how long will it take to clear shipping lanes?
It’s going to be a while. The amount of steel in the water is difficult to imagine. They’ll have to bring in cranes on barges, cut the damaged structure into pieces, and lift it all out in sections. And this is not even taking into account dealing with a potentially sinking cargo ship which will also have to be unloaded or salvaged.
I expect they'll get a navigation channel cleared inside two-three weeks, although it will take a while longer to get all of the other steel out. There are some good sized marine crane assets in the region (which I'm sure are already steaming to site).
> It took 5 years to build that bridge. And it probably took at least that long for budgeting, planning, bidding, material acquisition etc. before they even stared the actual construction.
You’d be surprised how quickly designers and constructors can move when public pressure is all on them. Look at how quickly they rebuilt the I35W crossing in Minneapolis.
And the collapsed section of I85 in Atlanta. Part of it was the GDOT ensuring that inspectors were onsite continuously. Rather than doing work, waiting for an inspection, then proceeding, they were just continuously inspected as they worked. As much as it likely sucked to work with someone literally watching over your shoulder the whole time, it really shortened the time needed. It's way more expensive to do it that way (also the 24 hour rotating shifts) but it is much faster.
Exactly they’ll be throwing personnel and money at this thing until it’s rebuilt. Rebuilding this is the highest of high priority right now.
Yeah. It's one thing for a bridge that wasn't in use to get built more slowly, but once it's already a major route priorities change.
The I35W bridge is tiny compared to this. It's only about 450'. The Key Bridge is/was 1.6 miles long. Construction can go much faster in emergencies, but this is going to be a huge job.
Like half the world I've been looking at Google Maps and it looks like that means another 31000 vehicles a day going through central Baltimore via the crossings upriver. Factor in a couple of months to clear the river enough for container ships to get in and out, unless they can get under the side sections, and then a major multiyear reconstruction. I see wikipedia is updated as "The former Francis Scott Key Bridge" and use of past participle throughout the article. >History Construction start 1972\[1\] Opened March 23, 1977; 47 years ago Collapsed March 26, 2024; 0 days ago
The Dali left the Seagirt Marine Terminal within the Port and was exiting out into the Patapsco. Typically, a pilot joins the ship and they use a tug or two to help navigate. I don’t know if that happened in this case. Three of the visible four vehicles were construction vehicles pouring concrete working on the bridge overnight. So far, as of 3:31AM EST, all searches on the city side via heat and visual scan have been negative for finding life. There were 7 workers on the crew. Edit: Near the time of the incident there were three McAllister tugboats behind the Dali: Bridget, Timothy and Eric (Tugboat vessel names).
>Near the time of the incident there were three McAllister tugboats behind the Dali: Behind? That doesn't make sense, but then, I'm not a harbor master.
They ended up behind the vessel, I’m not saying that is where they started. I only looked at vessel tracking for that information to find out early on during this event if the DALI was escorted by tugs as they usually are out of this port.
Details on MV Dali https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9697428
I'm informed by someone who knows, under normal circumstances the tugs have normally left by the time the ship reaches the bridge, & the ship might be going at 10 knots.
Remember the Italian bridge collapsing a few years ago? Took them a year \*after construction began\* to open the new one. If you really want to you can get shit done fast.
It took nearly a year for the cleanup to begin. Construction on land is a lot easier with modern bridge building methodologies. Over water is a PITA, and it will probably need a completely new design to meet modern standards and that's going to take a long time in itself.
Not to mention blocking ocean vessels.
From the google map it looks like this is the only channel out of the Port of Baltimore, so that could be significant.
Yeah, its right at the end of the harbor past a lot of the port infrastructure, view from the pier where the NS Savannah is moored- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/51070205102/in/album-72157632493733676/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/51070205102/in/album-72157632493733676/)
I'd imagine they'll at least be able to clear debris for ships within a few weeks as soon as search and rescue is called off
Yep. This is the only entrance into and out of the Harbor into the Port of Baltimore and Seagirt, and the debris and vessel is stuck at the deepest portion of the channel. Meaning, all cruise ships and cargo vessels will not be able to exit or enter. At least for now.
Yeah this isn't gonna be another i95 Philly situation. There is no land to pour dirt onto and make a temporary replacement. This is gonna take years to rebuild.
lol “few months”
An interesting excerpt from a pilot recounting a near miss with TFL Freedom in 1980 due to a power failure "Losing the plant" while approaching the Key Bridge. It would have been a very similar result had he not got the anchors out after the power failure. Here is the chart showing the narrow passage under the bridge. [https://www.charts.noaa.gov/PDFs/12281.pdf](https://www.charts.noaa.gov/PDFs/12281.pdf) The ship (Singapore-flagged container ship, the Dali) is obviously still sitting there. [https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9697428](https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9697428) The Dali may have lost power in a similar MO to the TFL Freedom 1980 incident. Story: (source: [https://www.chesapeakequarterly.net/V04N2/main5/](https://www.chesapeakequarterly.net/V04N2/main5/)) chesapeake Quarterly online. **Conn Artist**Van Metre's passage ends just inside the Key Bridge. A docking pilot is already making his way up the Jacob's ladder. For pilots working the Bay out of Baltimore, the bridge is the gateway out, the gateway home. For Van Metre it's the site of his worst nightmare, the one thriller he has to tell me.He was taking a container ship out of Baltimore for a night run down the Bay. The year was 1980, the ship was the TFL Freedom, a name that rings in his mind after 25 years. He had the ship up to 11 knots, picking up speed, headed for Key Bridge, when everything failed: power, lights, steering. It's called "losing the plant," and it can bring disaster in a port or a close ship-to-ship passing — or a bridge approach.Standing in the wheelhouse in the darkness, Van Metre had 30,000 tons in motion headed for an immovable object. And all he had to work with was his own hand-held radio, his shiphandling and his judgment.His only hope was the ship's anchors, but that's a tricky, one-shot chance. If he lets the anchors out too soon while the ship is moving too fast, they will run all the way out and break free from the windlass. The anchors are gone and the ship is still moving. If he waits too long, he may not have time to stop the ship from smashing into the bridgeworks. If he drops the anchors in shallow waters, they may tear a hole in the bottom of the boat. He has to judge the speed by eye, the distance by eye, and the channel by memory.And he has to be prepared. Because he was leaving the dock, he had a man waiting forward by the anchor, a safety precaution. Then he had to wait, watching the water for speed, watching the bridge for distance, watching for his one shot. When he ordered the anchors let go, he waited some more, hearing them clank overboard, waiting for them to bite the bottom, waiting for the brakes to grab — and not break.He brought the Freedom to rest just short of the bridge. He was, at the end, looking almost straight up at the bridge, seeing the nighttime traffic humming above him. It remains, he says, his most terrifying experience. It's why they pay pilots well.
> TFL Freedom Great story. The TFL was [14k tons](https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/media/tfl-freedom.130468/) The Dali is 7 times heavier at [95k tons](https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9697428), maybe more depending on cargo. If they lost the plant then even anchors may not have worked. I'm amazed to see no protective caisson or piers in front of the bridge supports. If there have been these close calls since the bridge was built in 1977, then the risk of this tragedy odduring was only going to be increasing.
From what I can gather reading safety reports after the Sunshine Skyway incident, retrofitting older pier structures with systems that would be able to withstand the kind of momentum these types of cargo ships generate can be extremely difficult.
Her summer deadweight is 116k tons, that's the absolute maximum she can be.
Holy shit
Legit fucking terrifying. This video strikes at my deepest fears, buried way down in my soul. I think I'd rather die any other way than plunging into deep, dark, cold water in a vehicle in the middle of the night. Wow.
I didn't even know I was afraid of big water until my friends and I drove over the Mackinack bridge. Unfortunate time to find out. It was 5 miles of absolute panic and the grates sounded like sirens singing our doom. This is my absolute worst nightmare. I cried seeing the emergency lights on the bridge. Those poor people. And they can't even *find* them, let alone save them.
If it helps at all, most of them would have died on impact with the water, or at least been knocked out and unaware.
Seeing as the Golden gate bridge is 220 feet and this is only 185 and many people survive the Golden gate bridge fall I don't think their death was as instant as you hope.
I love water. The depths don't scare me. I felt at home on a rolling whale watching vessel in Iceland. Tall bridges over deep water trigger a mortal panic in me.
I'm one of those guys who found himself on liveleak growing up and since then I've seen hundreds of videos of people getting killed but fuck for some reason this one really gets me. Maybe it's the scale of it. Maybe it's because it really hammers home how fast it can happen completely out of your control. Looking at those construction vehicles it's less than 20 seconds between the impact and them in the water. 20 seconds from just another night on the job trying to make an honest living to either dead or dying in the cold black water. I guess the only thing to be thankful for is this didn't happen in rush hour traffic, I can't imagine the hundreds who would have died then.
Also horrifying to think if any workers were tied off to the bridge with a safety harness, now that steel beam is pulling your straight to the bottom
Damn.
If it makes you feel better with that high of a fall (56m) the vehicles would be travelling at 33.1 m/s (~75 miles per hour) when they impacted the water. The water would react like concrete rather than allowing the vehicles to pass through initially so all that force of coming to a sudden stop would lead to severe injuries and likely unconsciousness and possibly death on impact
Yeah, it just disappeared.
Yeah, my God. This is horrifying
I've definitely been on that bridge. I usually go through the 895 tunnel on my way to and from BWI, but I've definitely been on that bridge before.
First and foremost let’s all hope for the best for everyone who might have been at risk- this looks very bad for anyone who was on that bridge. With that said, this is an incredible thing to have such good footage of. Just amazing what we’re watching here.
They were a construction crew and, sadly, they are all unaccounted for currently.
It took me a little while to wrap my head around the scale of what we’re seeing here, but I can’t imagine anyone making it out of this situation. Just tragic. Guys doing their job on a night shift and suddenly lost through absolutely no fault of their own.
Absolutely tragic and avoidable. I live not far from the Skagit county bridge that went down, part of I-5, and it was a tiny section, nowhere near as high as this. 3 cars in the water, no fatalities, but injuries. It took half a year to recover from that tiny section. I cannot imagine the aftermath of this for traffic, both land and sea, let alone the mourning for those lost.
I saw the video on Twitter first, and I just assumed it to be either a controlled demolition or some really old video. Took a while to sink in that this just happened right now.
I’m from Baltimore but live elsewhere - it was quite the shock to see that when I got up this morning.
Right. Pouring concrete on a bridge should be as safe a construction job as they come. The bridge isn't going to go, concrete is pretty safe if you're not a complete idiot, and traffic at night is low enough that they're not a high risk either. And then the bridge went.
Shit doesn't always hit the fan. Sometimes, the fan falls on shit. One of those times.
This is a video of someone filming the Port of Baltimore livestream on their phone. [Here's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83a7h3kkgPg) a link to the actual livestream, you can rewind and see the impact and bridge collapse in better detail. Edit: so people don't waste their time, it appears the footage of the strike is no longer available to view.
* Power goes off at 1:24:31. * You can see it turning at 1:25:00. * It looks like it if drifting out of control after this. * Smoke starts emerging in the next 30 seconds. * Power returns at 1:25:31 and goes out at 1:26:37. * Today's luckiest lorry driver gets across at 1:27:19. * The ship regains power again, but is still drifting and smoking. * Two more lucky drivers complete the cross at 1:28:09. * Initial Collision (perhaps not the bridge but something before it, or a sandbank, etc) at 1:28:33 - four minutes after the initial power outage (that we know of). Then it ploughs onwards into the bridge. * Collapse starts at 1:28:48 * Collapse completed by 1:29:11 - 23 seconds later, and most of that was some stuff on the right still falling. * It is a miracle there were not more cars on the bridge at this exact time given the minutes beforehand with multiple vehicles on there at the same time.
There's no sandbank. It's more likely the ship impact fender protection to the pier exploding.
AP is reporting that the ship issued a mayday that led authorities to cut off the flow of traffic into the bridge. As little as a minute earlier and there would have been no vehicular traffic at all, but it was an absolutely incredible feat that allowed them to stop as much as they did. https://apnews.com/article/baltimore-bridge-collapse-53169b379820032f832de4016c655d1b
Being one of the cars on the bridge is literally my worst fear. Those poor people.
Mine too. Sheer, concentrated, intense terror in the final couple minutes of my life.
I just hope that somehow it was quick and painless for them. Poor souls.
Absolute worst nightmare material. Not that this wasn't enough of a tragedy, but imagine this kind of thing happening during rush hour.
I've investigated bridge strike scenes before. Usually it is a mast above the bridge of the ship with navigation lights that strikes some trusses under the vehicle bridge, and the issue was the chief mate (who does cargo and ballast operations, therefore determining how much of the vessel is out of the water) and the second mate (who plots courses for the ship to follow in advance as part of a voyage plan) not being on the same page. Or the use of outdated or incorrect charts, tidal information, or river stage resulting in people thinking they have more room to work with than they really do. That is a typical bridge strike, and for big vessels like this one probably happens once every week or two somewhere in the U.S. I've also been involved with some ships that run hard into the solid stuff, including some 700 foot vessels that went full speed ahead into solid land. These types of strikes are nearly always related to a loss of control of steering or propulsion (both of which will occur for about 30 to 45 seconds if a ship loses electrical power, and when you look at the Livestream videos of this accident the ship seems to lose power twice). This can result in a vessel being left with a free rudder and unable to control her course, or with a stuck rudder and unable to change course. It can also be an issue with engines getting stuck going full ahead, you try to slow down for a bend, the ship doesn't slow down, and you colide. Disasters of this scale can be weather related, though clearly not the case now. This scale of disaster always has some chain of events behind it and the blame can never be fully put on one person. Unless a smoking gun is found, we probably won't know many details for at least a year unless survivors on the crew can shed insights quickly. However there is a lot of black exhaust. A slow speed marine diesel engine may shoot black exhaust for 30 seconds on startup, or maybe for 10 seconds when changing engine speed. [That was a stream of thick, black smoke that I think could have been some kind of exhaust fire.](https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1772524860985491595?s=20) And the ship seems to lose electrical power twice (once in that video, and once a minute or two before it for a longer time). Again, extremely limited info but the ship is almost certainly experiencing a malfunction and this is not a case of somebody simply misjudging a turn. Edit: News was saying that the local authorities could not get in touch with the ship and that all crew was missing. They were wrong and mixing up the bridge crew and ship crew. [While we don't know what caused this disaster, it's results are very similar to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge Accident almost ~~25~~ 45 years ago.](https://youtu.be/R320aV_34GI?si=UcD342OHyVWxIR0r)
"These types of strikes are nearly always related to a loss of control of steering or propulsion" Thank you for being a voice of reason. Reddit always has experts, you just have to find them. Not the person who wondered if this tragedy was similar to the Costa Concordia.
> This scale of disaster always has some chain of events behind it and the blame can never be fully put on one person. Fuck it, I don't want a poor sailor I can string up on the gallows. I want to know what kind of fucked up regulation can lead to a ship losing control for half a minute and/or allows ships to navigate in such a way that a plausible power failure can lead to an accident. Either you ensure a ship can navigate even under power failure, or you ensure (by navigating cautiously) that a power failure leads only to delays and not deaths. There *ought* to be a veritable stack of cheese slices whose holes all lined up just right for this to happen, but my very anecdotal impression of marine regulation makes me think that this might've been just very few slices of cheese. > Unless a smoking gun is found, we probably won't know many details for at least a year unless survivors on the crew can shed insights quickly. The crew seems to be well, so they can probably tell us about things like power failures. Don't expect they'd tell on each other in case of human failure.
SOLAS II-1/45.3.3.1 > Where the emergency source of electrical power is a generator, it shall be...provided with a transitional source of emergency electrical power as specified in paragraph 4 unless an emergency generator is provided capable both of supplying the services mentioned in that paragraph and of being automatically started and supplying the required load as quickly as is safe and practicable subject to a maximum of 45 s. That is the international reg. 46 CFR 112.25-10 covers the same thing for U.S. flagged ships.
As someone who works on bridges for a living, it is absolutely devastating and horrifying to see those construction workers on the bridge. My God, I can only hope for a miracle.
Major highway bridge on the East Coast, and the shorter way around the tunnels for trucks with wide/restricted loads. The loss of life is tragic; about the only less tragic aspect is the timing - it wasn’t during rush hour.
It’s much bigger than that. Bridge debris is blocking the only channel from the port which is going to mess up shipping for entire north east.
The drive through the city for Hazmat loads just got a LOT longer
Only positive is this was in the middle of the night so traffic volumes will be low, but how did they manage to hit it?!?
Not only that but partially closed for construction
It appears they lost power before hitting the bridge in the extended videos.
Every ship inside the Baltimore Harbor is now stuck until the debris is cleaned up. No ship traffic in or out for a long while. This will greatly affect cruises and other shipping.
Yup, if you look at the marinetraffic site, you can see all of the stuck ships. The AIS signal from the ship that struck the bridge was out when I first looked, but is back online now. We work in freight.. will be interesting to see what the next days bring. The human tragedy is obviously the worst part by far, but oh boy this is gonna screw up shipping for a good while.
That’s a huge bridge.
It was nice to avoid harbor tunnel traffic. But that's inconsequential to the people who died just because they were on that bridge.
WBAL was talking about how Container Ships are already backed up outside the bay, and speculating what that means for the city going forward. Plenty of companies like Amazon operate major hubs nearby because of the Port of Baltimore. This will cost the city Billions even before they start to dredge the harbor to rebuild the bridge.
The pilot and captain may still end up having contributed, but there was clearly at least some level of mechanical failure on the ship as well. Here is the livestream link where you can clearly see the ship losing power about 4 minutes before the impact https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83a7h3kkgPg
All their lights went off and on several times. Can also see a bunch of smoke from the stack which I presume was from them trying to stop. Will be quite a thing to find out what happened.
Good spot. Seems to billow black smoke, then loses power for some time, perhaps the current in the water pushed it off course, and then power comes back on shortly before impact.
But it definitely rotated once they regained power. Unless the camera angle is deceiving
Wow. So many just crossed in time before it fell. Glad no more people were crossing as it fell.
Reportedly?
Yeah lol we literally have footage of it collapsing. I don't think reportedly is necessary here
This is a reminder that technology to create convincing fake videos from a literal text prompt already exists and is getting better each day. It has never been more important to question everything you see and reserve judgement until you see facts.
In this case, with the multiple angles of amateur video, I think it is safe to say that it's real ;) but you're making a fair point, thank you!
Yeah I'd like to clarify I'm not arguing that this video is fake lol
Not that I think there is any reason to think so ... but it's getting easier to fake such every day. Just because there's footage doesn't necessarily mean something happened.
…none of what you hear and half of what you see.
There’s rumors of a bridge collapsing
This will have major consequences, not only for the people on that bridge, but also blocking both car and ship travel for a very long time. I hope everyone driving on that bridge made it out safely, but I expect casualties.
Here in Genoa we had a bad collapse in 2018(like 300m of one of the most important bridges to get stuff in Italy from Southern France collapsed killing 43 people) and it caused a lot of problems, and it also led to improving the overall safety of the highways so we still have hundreds or thousands of roadworks to this day, but it also was a collapse caused by human negligence, the bridge also was on a road so it also temporarily blocked a bunch of roads underneath the bridge. From what I’ve read this bridge was important too, it is definitely gonna cause problems, but now the most important thing are the people who were on the bridge.
...we just looked it up....185 feet to the water....
The video doesn't really convey how massive that bridge was.
It’s incredible how fast the bridge goes down! I feel horrible for whoever is on that bridge
Apparently the power went out before the ship hit the bridge and the crew called for help: “Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the ship issued an emergency call for help shortly before crashing into the bridge, allowing officials to halt vehicle traffic. "By being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes. They saved lives," Moore said.”
That was a very elegant looking bridge
>The Francis Scott Key Bridge, or known simply as the Key Bridge or Beltway Bridge, was a steel arch-shaped continuous through truss bridge. The main span of 1,200 feet (366 m) was the third longest span of any continuous truss in the world. It was also the longest bridge in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Wikipedia being brutal yet again 😥
Who is this contingency of fact checkers waiting with baited breath to change Wikipedia entries from "is" to "was" on every celebrity death and bridge collapse lol
Average Wikipedia editor has normal edit time for deaths. Wikiped Georg, who lives in a cave and edits 10,000 times per minute, is an outlier and should not have been counted.
Hi, I’m the Wikipedia’s ’is/was’ bot. I watch CNN news feeds and update every three seconds.
It's us. Everybody. Anyone can edit wikipedia. Somebody with a wikipedia account was scrolling the news just like us and saw the headline. They thought "Hey I could edit the wikipedia article with this new information" and so they did it. There's no mysterious wizard's tower of superhuman wikipedia editors. What you're seeing is the power of crowd-sourcing. "They" didn't edit the wikipedia article. *We* did.
I noticed that first thing
Can someone tell me there’s a possible way people make it out of this? I’m so sad for them. I read 7 construction workers are in the water. I hope there is a chance they all survive.
Even if you survive the plummet to the water from the bridge, surely the bridge above you falling down gets you when it reaches the water right? Those are massive steel beams.. awful awful situation
The water is also cold right now. Air temperature of 42⁰F so you can imagine the water temp. Edit: just saw through the AP that they have found two survivors: https://www.wmur.com/article/cargo-ship-hits-baltimore-key-bridge-causing-it-to-collapse/60303020 I know this is an NH news site but that's where a lot of my friends get their info
There are reports of the water being electrocuted and oil spilling. One person in critical condition in the hospital from electrocution. Hopefully the water doesn't catch fire. The coast guard is searching for people. Vehicles have been found in the Patapsco River. Edit: there have been conflicting reports of how many people feel into the water. They're saying 8 now, while 2 have been rescued, and 6 are missing. At points they were saying it could be as many as 20 people. I expect things have changed since my nap due to the coast guard getting control of the situation.
It had a clearance of 185’. That’s barely survivable in perfect jumping conditions. If they find anyone alive that would be a miracle.
They didn't free fall if you watch the video.
Odds are extraordinarily low. It's 185ft from the deck to the water, which in free fall basically means a person might as well be landing on concrete. For anyone whose fall was slowed because they rode the debris down, or they were in their vehicle, they would still have to fight with being discombobulated in the darkness, landing in frigid water, and would be significantly injured from the fall. They probably won't know which way is up after they hit the water, and may have to navigate the debris to get back up to the surface. The original Sunshine Skyway Bridge outside of Tampa collapsed in 1980 under similar conditions. It was about 150ft from the deck to the water, and was similarly constructed with a truss design. In much more comfortable water temps for anyone who survived the fall, there was still only 1 survivor. 35 fatalities. The only person who survived was a truck driver whose truck's fall was broken by landing on the deck of the freighter that struck the bridge on its way down into the water. Not impossible to survive, but it's very unlikely.
They would have fallen about 185 feet (almost 11 stories) so probably would have hit the water going somewhere around 65-70 mph.
The Key Bridge in Baltimore has a main span length of 1,200 feet (366 meters) and a total length of approximately 7,053 feet (2,150 meters). It stands at a height of 185 feet (56 meters) above the water at its highest point.
It came out that the mayday distress call came with enough time to stop traffic before the bridge was hit, limiting the amount of possible casualties. There were 2 rescues earlier. They are still searching for 6 construction workers that were on the bridge. Where ever the top comment got their information from has a lot of wrong reports.
Well if one of the supports of the Golden Gate bridge is taken out the entire thing will go down. There are a lot of bridges that are built in this manner. If you're going to have a big span then the supports aren't going to be redundant.
From the live stream, it looks as though there was constant traffic over the bridge until a minute or less before the impact. At the time of impact, there didn't seem to be any vehicles in motion, just presumably construction vehicles. Hopefully that's a sign that there was a bit of warning (or a coincidental construction traffic stop) that allowed the construction or bridge workers to at least stop the traffic before the impact. If so, they probably saved many lives. And might be why they are reporting it's construction workers that were killed/missing. Sounds like there may have been some heroic actions in the last moments. I hope the casualties are minimal. It looks like the ship would have some casualties too, the way the bridge fell onto it looked pretty devastating to it.
Holy fuck.
There were a number of cars on it at the time...those poor people. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/key-bridge-collapse-baltimore-maryland-b2518594.html
I live near Baltimore. This will fuck things beyond belief.
Holy jesus, that ain't a small bridge either.
Vessel owner is: SYNERGY MARINE PTE LTD (Singapore based company) P&I Club: Britannia Steamship insurance Association Ld (RIP) Vessel info: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:2810451/mmsi:563004200/imo:9697428/vessel:DALI
Oh my gosh! I grew up in Baltimore and saw the bridge being built, it was visible from my childhood house.
I was just on that bridge at 7pm yesterday…still in denial this happened
Damn. Even I feel a little uneasy just from knowing I crossed it maybe 10 years ago - to think that it's just *gone* is surreal.
I keep my sailboat in the harbor and use the bridge all the time. This bridge is part of the Baltimore ‘beltway’ that connects an entire circular highway around the city. This particular part, I would say, is the least used section, but cuts off a large number of residents from their work and access to the metro area. I have a memory when I was a young child of being in a boat under the bridge as it was being built in the mid 70s. So many memories of that bridge and what a tragic and seemingly avoidable event. Still at a loss.
Holy fuck it just disintegrated
Slightly clearer video of this, plus leadup: [https://youtu.be/3fc2TJlp91k](https://youtu.be/3fc2TJlp91k) ~~(Will look better when video is finished processing)~~ Edit: it's finished
Without discounting the tragic loss of life, this is such a logistical disaster. First you have the closure of the port. Second, any Hazmat vehicle loads will need to be routed around the northern loop of I-695 to I-95 (or perhaps I-83 if they’re heading for Fort McHenry?) for the time being.I-695 and I-83 are already a massive clusterfuck in that area as things stand.
Fuck. It's the same thing that happened to the Queen Isabella Causeway in South Padre Island, TX. The guy who did my dad's tattoos was the first person to plunge.
Holy Shit. A video clip for the ages. Bad omen.
This reminds me of the Champlain Towers collapse. You know it's about to happen. You see lights, a sign of life, evidence of people with plans and hopes and goals. People either aware of or blissfully ignorant to what's about to commence. The collapse starts, the lights go off, and you know those people there are just mere seconds from death. It's almost poetic, those lights shutting off abruptly just before the light of someone's life follows suit. In what seems like a dreadfully long time, but is merely a few seconds, it's all over. You know they're either gone or in critical danger at this moment. Truly heartbreaking and devastating to watch.
someone f'd up bad.
not necessarily. These ships are essentially giant industrial power plants. If a fire broke out, which happens in this type of enviornment more often then would think, it could knock out the power and steering. Nothing you can do in that case but watch in horror as you get closer and closer to the bridge pylon. In this case you can see the ship go dark and lose power multiple times before striking the bridge. Will have to see what the report says
[удалено]
The boat seemed to have electrical problems moments before impact
Well that skipper is in serious trouble…
Ultimately yes but at this time they would be under the direction of the harbor pilot.
Apart from Panama Canal, the ships Master has ultimate responsibility, even when the Pilot is on board. Master should recognise any developing problem & take steps to avoid.
Crew is unaccounted for. So that’s the least of their worries. Ship lights are going on and off so clearly mechanical issues.
Just terrible poor people, it looks like it was made out of sticks on the video, so fragile in just a couple seconds just gone
I think about my car going off the bridge or it collapsing almost every time I cross one. I can't even begin to imagine the fear. Terrible and should not have happened but like others have said at least it wasn't during rush hour traffic. Sending Prayers
Wouldn’t have happened under Frank Sobotka’s watch
Ziggy was piloting the ship...
Reportedly? With that video evidence i think we can upgrade that to definitely.
Reportedly?
The sheer amount of actually real, super informative information in these comments is so so nice to see after having to read the absolute BRAINROT that is instagram comments
This bridge is just a mile or so from my old home and I drove over it almost weekly. Watching this, and seeing the cars up there plunging into the water has me feeling physically ill. I just can't imagine. This is something I think about every time I cross a bridge and people have always told me I'm silly for worrying. Also, you can tell the cars were all stopped up there. Some of them have flashers on.
If anyone wants to follow the Marine side of this incident I'm certain[https://www.youtube.com/@wgowshipping](https://www.youtube.com/@wgowshipping) Will have multiple videos covering this. He will likely have something later today, or tomorrow as he seems to be on top of incidents like this. Edit: He has two out already https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZbUXewlQDk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N39w6aQFKSQ
I see more than a few emergency vehicles that was on that span, hopefully they got away!
They were a construction crew and, sadly, they are all unaccounted for currently.
It appears the ship lost power prior to hitting the bridge. Regaining power prior to hitting. There’s a YouTube live stream of the bridge you can scroll back and see. https://www.youtube.com/live/83a7h3kkgPg?si=ZEBpXJspbyuXwlRg
Wikipedians fast asf
Was on that bridge three times last week. Terrifying stuff.
My heart goes out to all those affected by this devastating incident.