Baltimore: What Ship’s data tells us about the accident | SY News 

I live 10 miles from the Key Bridge. you gave me ten times the info that any media on TV so thank you for being so knowledgeable. cheers

FYI... the people on the bridge were road construction crew working on the road. They were able to get the bridge closed in time to keep cars off, and the final 2 cars crossing did make it past the danger point of collapse in time.

I live less than 20 min drive from the Key Bridge. Been over it hundreds of times since childhood and it hasn't really sank in yet that it's gone. Just unbelievable.

Been there, seen that, got the T-shirt! I ,as Electro Engineer/1;st Engineer, was onboard a ship, entering Gothenburg harbor, with a LOT of rocks on the seafloor, and we lost all power! That was, nothing to joke about. We were in the engine control room, as usual at the time, but could not do anything. Skipper dropped ancors in "panic" (=as soon as he knew the situation) manually, just to stop that damn thing, and did it with a minimum to spare, luckily. Then the emergy generator kicked in, with a delay, and we could do some things with that power, to try to start again. But not enough, no time to spare. I do not want to do that again. My thoughts goes, to those poor "bastards" on that vessel. I sincerely hope, the casualties are least possible. And I feel sorry, for all those people involved. from a Finn in Diaspora do not want to do that again.

CNN interviewing someone that has no clue. As usual. Such a tragedy. God Help the families that lost their loved ones. This is so upsetting!

Just as an aside... when they first opened that bridge, they invited some of the public for an official opening day walk across... I was one of them. I've also sailed under her in a schooner. This hits a little harder than I thought it would.😢

This is easily the best description of the situation, and the technology required I have seen all day. Thanks for the information.

Thanks for the info on the VDR. Sal Mercogliano is local and did some AIS info breakdown. Having info from both of you helps defuse the misinformation flying around.

Very important information is missing... when she lost course, she had just experienced a power outage. The whole ship went dark for about a minute or so. When the lights came back on, black smoke could be seen billowing up from the aft of the ship. She drifted during that time. It is reported that the captain then set the back flow and anchor to keep her from drifting more, but just succeeded in pointing the fore more starboard aiming directly to the pylon. It is also being reported that it then experienced another power outage before the strike. There was apparently a port pilot on board at the time.

According to BBC News at 6pm this evening there were two pilots on board. The Captain put out a Mayday call when the ship suddenly lost its engines as it approached the bridge.

Thanks E - I've been waiting for this all day. Much appreciated!

Thank you for this. There was undoubtedly a local pilot on the ship. My uncle was a pilot for the Port of Baltimore for 40 years. He would board these ships and guide them in and out of the harbor. His estimation after watching the video is that the ship lost steering due to a power failure. It looks like they dropped the anchor to try and slow it down or stop the vessel. I've driven over this bridge hundreds of times. It's sad to see it gone.

Thanks for the lucid, succinct report eSys! I look forward to your follow-ups. I didn't know they had responded to the Mayday and had closed the bridge!!

There is footage of the ship loosing power TWICE before hitting the pillar. All lights go off for seconds twice in very close proximity to the bridge, no power - no rudder.

Thank you for the information about the data recording abilities on board. That certainly helps to alleviate concerns about finding the truth about the incident. I've traveled both under and over the bridge. It's hard to believe there was so much destruction.

Thank you for covering this. It's such a tragedy on so many levels. A reminder that we are all interconnected and dependent on the most delicate threads. My heart breaks for the crew, trying so hard to recover and avoid the bridge.

Andrew McCabe Former FBI Deputy Director as an expert? What a joke!

Thanks for te posting ... much better to hear non-main media cover the story ...

You have a brilliant, succinct and level headed way of describing the current situation. It should help people to better process the situation.

As a fellow Merchant Mariner, your analysis is spot on and better than 99.9% of the coverage I have seen. Just speculating; as a semi-retired Master who had something similar occur, outbound, in Pilotage, from the Port of Tampa/St. Pete. About 1/2 way out the channel, the Helmsman informed me(the Master) and the Pilot, that he had lost steering. We immediately switched to Emergency Steering, but there was an obvious lag. In the same fashion, as you reported, then there was a puff of black smoke and almost instantly we had steering back. After calling the Engine Room, I was informed, by the Chief, that the 2nd Assistant had, UN-ANNOUNCED, decided to switch GenSets, so he could change fuel filters(while still in Pilotage). Okay, what was that you emphasized about "human error"? Keep up the good work!

Very interesting non-partisan analysys -- great video eSysman!

Good to hear your comments as someone familiar with marine navigation and maritime operations, rather than speculation from the general media. Thank you for offering a respectful and informative report.

Thank you sir, very informative video! Many prayers to all the people involved in this tragedy.

Great video! Very informative. Thank you!

What an informative and enlightening video. Thank you.

Your perspective is important and appreciated

I'm surprised by two thngs 1) that they ship's captain/pilot seemingly tried to go full astern/stop (from the black smoke and speed drop) instead of turning. In boats or planes, reducing speed kills your rudder authority. I would hope that the emergency power at least supplied the rudder as well as the means to command the engines into reverse 2) that such a bridge has no surrounding concrete protection structures (Caissons?) to act as a defense against driect strikes on the supports. For such a busy navigation channel, that seems mad.

Thanks for covering this accident so we all can learn from this in the future.

Thank-you for the informative report. Much better than any main stream news report. Condolences to the families of missing accident victims.

I tagged you specifically because of your knowledge of the systems in question. Thank you!

Thank you, You gave us the best Report.

Maybe it is time to keep the tugboats with the ship until open water. We took a cruise ship out of Houston and had tugs with us until the Gulf.

This is a sad situation but this was such a comprehensive video with video of the bridge collapse, information on how long it would take to survive in the water, the path of the ship, local news clip, a summary of the information that will be stored in the black box equivalent, and much more including expert commentary from an experienced expert. Thanks team this was great.

They lost power twice. You can literally see it happen as the ship approaches the bridge in the videos. All the lights shut off, come back on briefly, then shut off again just before impact.

Excellent update on the ops side of things..thanks for sharing..😊

Thank you. I was waiting to hear about this from someone who has nolage about maritime and experience. Thanks again

Simple question, where where the TUG boats to ensure huge ships make it safely out of the harbour?

Some local videos are showing the ship going dark a short time before hitting the bridge support, then navigation lights coming back on shortly before impact. Also it has been said one of the anchors were dropped before impact. This bridge is not far from here. So sad lives have been lost in this very tragic accident.

This seems to be one of the most credible channels to go to for an early analysis.

Thanks for the a well thought report quickly after the incident.

I am watching at 5pm EDT 26 March. Earlier today, around 5 hours ago, I saw video taken from local Baltimore TV fixed camera pointed at the Key Bridge for traffic and weather. The video clearly shows 2 seperate TOTAL POWER FAILURES on the ship PRIOR to striking the bridge. The first was approximately 20 seconds prior to impact, power came back on about 10 seconds maybe 12 seconds before impact. The 2nd failure of power happened approximately 2 seconds maybe 3 after power was restored from first failure. When the 2nd power failure happened about 5 seconds later the ship struck the bridge. Immediately after the first power failure, the boat turned to starboard (from the bridge of the vessel looking toward the bow) from the camera it turns port toward the piling. When power was restored after the first outage, the ship tried to make a correction toward the Chanel, the bow began to move back to Port ( from the bridge of the ship) when the 2nd outage happened the ship cut HARD to STARBOARD (again from ship's bridge). Reports are being stated there was a jammed PORT SIDE RUDDER. This is being reported by multiple news agencies. DOES NOT SURPRISE ME AT ALL, THAT CNN PUT AN EXPERT ON THAT HAS NO CLUE OF WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT!!!!!

Been waiting for this report from SYN. Real knowledge, not just a talking head filling air time. Good report.

Yes not your usual subject but I appreciate the technical aspects you provided.

Very helpful information. Thank you.

Good job, thank you!

Wonderful coverage as usual

Thank you for the briefing

Great reporting of the technical aspects relating to this incident.

I went straight to you for accurate information ❤

thank you !!!!!

Absolutely the best explanation of what could have gone wrong and how they can find the actual cause.

thank you for the info. heartbreaking

This bridge was opened in 1977. Back then container ships were less than 1/2 the size of todays. The bridge codes in 1977 were totally different than todays in terms of pylon, pier protection. Im surprised they said those huge container ships do not need tug boat escorts to pass the bridge. That was a big mistake.

As to Flag State exeptions - Singapore is known as one of the strictest flags - though this is a non issue with a build date of 2015.

Thanks for your knowledge.

Thanks for showing this... I was working that night on a Tugboat... I cook an crew .. the ships MayDay call was heard.. I grew up with the bridge in my window... It's crazy it's gone ... My son was at Fort Armstead when it happened...

They managed to get a warning out on channel 16 and traffic was haulted unfortunately there was several vehicle's already on the bridge. There was also road crews patching pot holes on the deck surface. Theres still not an exact number of people who were on the bridge yet.

👍thanks for the video

Great report, thanks for the great explanation. I watched the footage they played last night and it looked like they knew they had problems because all the traffic had been stopped and only emargency response vehicles were parked on the bridge, unfortunately they should have not been on the bridge at all.

Thank you for a professional assessment of what is publicly known.

Great details on your report

I live about 2 miles from the bridge. I cannot even begin to recall the amount of times I have driven over it since 1977. The Span just celebrated is 37th anniversay three days ago. As of about 7:50 local time all further rescue attenps have been called off. 6 Constrution workers are missing. Two were rescued and incredibly one even released from Hospital already. At the last inspection the bridge passed with a decent score considering many of the bridges across the Country are pretty bad. The Port of Baltimore handled more than $80 billion in imports and exports in 2023... This collapse shuts the entire Port of Baltimore down for the foreseable future. Both cargo and ocean liners. The Cargo Vessel Dali based out of Singapor Lost power around 1:15 or so. She was able to call a Mayday and the bridge was closed to vehicles except for the roadcrew. Thankfully. All 22 of the crew and the two harbor pilots were unhurt. Agencies responded from the two counties the bridge joins. As well as the City and everal other agencies. The Coast Guard has a station about one mile over water to the bridge.

👍 Thanks E.

Yes, My heart goes out to the people on the bridge who plummeted into the water and have not been found.

Thank you

Thanks!

Was hoping to see you cover this!

To me, the surprising thing is how fragile the supports for the bridge were. Knowing that huge ships travel through there; shouldn't there be a huge pylon, like on the San Francisco Bay Bridge ???

Thank you for giving out Professional Mariner information on your report of this. I so wish major news media would have reached out to you or SALs channel 😊 Whats going on with shipping.

Voyage Data Recorder aka ship's black box may include the following information: Position, date, time using GPS Speed log - Speed through water or speed over ground Gyro compass - Heading Radar - As displayed or AIS data if no off-the-shelf converter available for the Radar video ECDIS - A screen capture every 15 seconds and a list of navigational charts in use every 10 minutes or when a chart change occurs Audio from the bridge, including bridge wings VHF radio communications Echo sounder - Depth under keel Main alarms - All IMO mandatory alarms Hull openings - Status of hull doors as indicated on the bridge Watertight & fire doors* status as indicated on the bridge Hull stress - Accelerations and hull stresses Rudder - Order and feedback response Engine/Propeller - Order and feedback response Thrusters - Status, direction, amount of thrust % or RPM Anemometer and weather vane - Wind speed and direction

Thank you 😢

After reading a million takes on Reddit, it's very welcome to have your insight, thank you

Thank you so very much for your factual information on this tragic occurrence. I am an American and am tired of self-proclaim knowledgeable people making up answers as they go. The coverage I've found, other than your channel, has been vague at best. Thanks again.

Thank you for reporting on this, because I dislike mainstream media at this point. They rarely get anything correct , and often increase the fear levels of people unnecessarily. You are always factual, pointed and relay information to us laypeople very well. Thank you for exceptional reporting as always

Thank you for the video, you are more informative than every single legacy news outlet, wow, this was great. BTW it is not pronounced Mary…Land, but rather merelend

Which anchor was dropped first? Port or starboard? That would affect the course. Was it a right hand or left hand propeller? In reverse it would make the ship swing one way or the other , and may have induced cavitation to the rudder making it less effective. The big blast of dark smoke at the course change would be an indication of a large power input.

Thanks for some knowledgeable analysis of what happened. My first boat with fly by wire controls decided to stay in reverse while I was backing towards a dock. Fortunately, I was going slow enough to kill the engines and fend off from the dock. Of course mechanical controls can fail as well.

Considering there is a vital bridge at that location I would have thought there would have been tugs helping the ship under the bridge.

The press conference mentioned there was a road crew doing some paving on the bridge. They did not get off in time mostly likely it was said. Tragic for all involved.

Thank you for delving into this unfortunate situation. I am keeping my observations quiet. Very interesting how the news put such a tail on this story, as always. They should just keep quiet when they know not what they are talking about (but if that were such the case, they would be off air). 3/26/2024

I saw on here on RU-vid a longer video (or CNN), that had about a 4-5 minutes before the impact, showed the lights on the ship went off for about a minute before they came back on before hitting the bridge. Also a lot of black smoke from the funnel like the were trying to reverse. Also if of you look at the bridge deck to the right toward the opposite pillar, close to the pillar the are flashing maintenance vehicles on the bridge and I assume people out on the bridge working when it collapse. The video also mentioned the mayday and the bridge just got closed before impact.

There were private contractors working on the bridge at the time. Also, our local news had very good video and there were vehicles on the bridge when it fell but not many around 7

I was a Maersk Captain. This is my assessment of what happened. I don’t have any direct knowledge of the situation but I have a lot of experience in similar situations. They just made the turn, let go of the tugboats. Once they exceeded 6 kts. They shut down the bow thruster. They then shut down their secondary generator. The ship has 3 main generators. One large generator and 2 smaller generators. A 4th generator is called the EDG/emergency diesel generator. If the engineers didn't know what the reefer load was (electrical power required), they could have shut down the wrong generator. Often times it requires 2 generators for the entire passage. US flagged ships keep 2 generators on until they reach open ocean. Foreign ships shut down their second generator as soon as possible. They have a financial incentive. They are evaluated based upon their KPI. Their bonuses are significant compared to their salary. I believe that an engineer shut down the wrong generator and they lost power. Or shut one down 1 when 2 generators were required for the power requirements. Often times the third generator is not functional because it is under maintenance or repairs. That would shut down the main engine. The lights came back on when the EDG automatically started. The black smoke could be from starting a generator, or more likely from trying to start the main engine. The ebb tide (from the side channel) pushed the stern to port, causing the ship turn to starboard.

In the last report, I heard one of the construction crew's pickup was found in 25 feet of water with both the crew perished. The ship did appear to lose steerage after losing power. They may have hit a current pushing them into the bridge stanchion.

This is not just ANY bridge. This is the Francis Scott Key Bridge, named for the man who wrote our national anthem. The bridge is beloved by people all over the country. I say this as a citizen of Phoenix, Arizona, two thousand miles away.

Thank you ESYSMAN for this very important video & the correct information. We don't seem to get any correct information on this tragedy. The stupid remarks from that female CNN was way off base, as usual !!!! Great job guys, TMP from N.J.

As has been commented on elsewhere, it can been seen that the ship has 2 power outages. Following the first one smoke for the funnel can be seen. IF this is indicating that the ship was put into FULL reverse (which seems probable) then on a 'single screw' ship this will have an actual physical effect - namely that the ships stern will kick out to port, regardless of speed. This will effectively steer the ship's nose to starboard and towards the pillion, as depicted by the videos. Ships captains would be trained to anticipate this. So one has to wonder just what was going on on the bridge between the pilot and the captain.

Inconceivable that those structures weren't protected, I mean it's not the first time that a ship has taken out a bridge. Unbelievable.

The local pilot cannot do any thing if the ship loses propulsion. The tug boats should not have been released until the ship was clear of the bridge. That should have been the local regulation.

Such a tragic accident and we pray for those who may have been in harm's Way. I really feel like it would be of good service for you to offer your expertise to the national and international news media so that your knowledge and professional opinions could and would make a big difference.

Reports mention due to the length of the transit in / out of the port, two Baltimore qualified pilots are present on transits until the MV clears the bay

Another video shows the ship losing electrical power as well as smoke indicating something was going on with the engine(s). If engine failure resulted in loss of electrical power I would find it hard to believe that there wasn't emergency electrical power to keep the controls running for a few minutes at least. But, if that wasn't the case and the ships controls were lost when the power was lost then the ship would have been unresponsive and could go anywhere depending on what the rudder position was when power was lost. I suspect all will be known once the VDR is recovered and the data recovered.

wow that cnn interview was so useful. so much helpful info...

Hi. The ship lost power 3 times before striking the bridge. She was in the shipping lane and started drifting out of the lane after 1st power loss. Video evidence shows her repowering and lots of smoke suggesting an attempt the reverse out. By 2 subsequent power outages made maneuvering impossible. She also is sitting with her port anchor dropped. She also issued a Mayday to stop traffic onto the bridge.

For those who are wondering about the name of the bridge. Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner, our national anthem.

seems like the most important thing to check is whether there was any rudder control after the initial loss of power, that could explain why they choose to try to slow down, with rudder control, depending on the wind they might have been able to just slide through.

Thank you for reviewing this item. Your coverage is much more adept that the pencil pushers that present the news.

This seems to me to be only a matter of time for this to happen to any bridge ,all it took was a single system malfunction . With such important infrastructure, why are the not being escorted through the channel and under the bridge with tugs? Well it's too late now ! My thoughts are with the families of the missing and kudos to the quick thinking personnel that closed the roads so no other traffic was allowed on.

Posted on X - ship had 2 pilots on board, ship broadcast a Mayday due to loss of power resulting in bridge being closed to traffic just prior to collision, approx 20 roadworkers were on the bridge when it collapsed, ship deployed anchors prior to collision.

When I hear about something going wrong in the U.S., I just Google the demographics of the state. That explains a lot. In Denmark, bridge pillars are protected by shallow waters, natural or deliberately made, so any ship of significant weight will run aground if it gets too close to a pillar.