A professor of marine technology said the ship’s crew Dali The cargo ship lost power before colliding with a bridge near Baltimore early Tuesday and had less than a minute to react in “challenging” conditions.
CCTV video and ocean tracking data showed the ship lost power, changed course and began to smoke before hitting the Francis Scott Key Bridge, sending eight people and several vehicles plunging into the icy Pataps Co River.
Jin Wang of Liverpool John Moores University said he believed the system supporting the ship’s engines was likely to have failed and the crew might have panicked or been unprepared to manually steer the ship away from the bridge supports, especially if the ship was on autopilot at the time.
The bridge collapsed and rescuers pulled two people from the water after the boat hit one of the supports. One of them was uninjured and the other is fighting for his life in hospital.
Six contractors who were repairing potholes on the bridge were missing and presumed dead when the ship collided with the bridge.
What caused the crash?
Professor Wang told I He believed there would be enough time to get the ship off the bridge after power was restored, but he believed the crew did not act fast enough.
He believed that the ship’s bridge was manned by two crew members at the time of the collision, with the remaining staff and the captain sleeping, as this is how cargo ships are usually manned at night. The ship’s owner said there were two pilots on board.
Professor Wang believes that the bridge crew may have panicked and therefore not steered the ship towards the route, or it may have been because it was still early and they did not feel alert and were slow to react.
But he added that he did not blame them for being unable to steer the ship to safety because it was difficult to act quickly in difficult situations.
Professor Wang said: “They have less than a minute to respond – it’s very short. It’s challenging, but” he believes, “it’s not impossible.”
“Power outages don’t usually happen, but this happened early in the morning.
“The crew had a short period of time to maneuver the ship, which may have contributed to the accident – they had less than a minute to make the right decision. This played a role in this accident.
“I think if you take the right action, there will be less consequences – as a human being, it’s hard to react perfectly at the time.”
Professor Wang also believes that if the ship is on autopilot, the crew may not be ready to quickly take over the ship’s navigation when there is a power outage.
If the fuel system or air cooling system isn’t working properly, it could cause engine failure, he said.
The ship’s emergency generators are small systems capable of powering the ship’s lights and steering, but are unable to restore power to the ship’s engines, making operations away from the bridge difficult.
“Only the auxiliary function comes into play – in an emergency you can only steer the rudder,” he added.
Loss of propulsion
Clay Diamond, president of the Maritime Pilots Industry Association, said the ship’s pilot had tried to slow down before the accident.
Diamond, executive director of the American Pilots Association, said he has been in close contact with officials from the Maryland Pilots Association, who described to him what happened as the ship approached the bridge.
He said that minutes after the boat left, it lost all power, including its engine.
He said the pilot immediately ordered the rudder to be turned sharply to the left to prevent the ship from turning right, and ordered the anchor to be anchored on the port side.
Mr. Diamond said the pilot also contacted the dispatch office and requested the bridge be closed. After the ship lost power, the emergency generators kicked in and turned the lights back on, but not the propulsion, he said.
anchor
The ship left the Port of Baltimore at 1:04 a.m. and headed to a Sri Lankan port to begin a 27-day journey.
Video captured by StreamTime Live showed the ship slowly approaching the bridge at 1.24am before its lights went out, suggesting it suffered a complete power outage. At 1.25am, the lights on the ship flashed again and black smoke began to appear on the ship.
At 1.26 minutes and 37 seconds, the ship’s lights went out again, indicating another power outage, and then came back on at 1.27 minutes and 10 seconds.
Less than a minute later, the path to the base bridge began to collapse — shortly after the crew sent a distress call to Maryland officials, who said they had lost control of the vessel and that a bridge collision was imminent. Within 90 seconds, police were able to stop traffic on the bridge.
The ship experienced a brief loss of propulsion and broke down as part of emergency procedures before hitting a structure, according to the Port Authority of Singapore.
All 22 crew members on board the vessel, owned by Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, are missing and uninjured, according to SMP.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said a preliminary investigation indicated it was an accident, adding that the bridge complied with safety regulations and no structural issues were reported.
Moore said the boat was heading toward the bridge “very, very fast” and a distress call allowed officials to stop cars from crossing the bridge before the collision.
Additional reporting by Reuters and AP
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