Baltimore Tragedy: Big Revelation About Ship Dali Before It Struck Francis Scott Key Bridge
It has been revealed that cargo ship Dali had experienced an electrical blackout while undergoing maintenance before the Francis Scott Key Bridge tragedy in Baltimore.
This was revealed by investigators probing the March 2024 collapse in a preliminary report released Tuesday, May 14.
What does the preliminary report reveal?
The power outage took place a day before the tragedy after a crew member closed an exhaust damper by mistake. This caused the cargo ship’s engine to stall, as per the report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board. Shortly after leaving the port on March 26, Dali lost power again, crashing into one of the bridge’s supporting columns. The bridge collapsed in seconds.
The report added that the ship’s senior pilot and apprentice pilot were not informed about the previous power outage. The agency added that a full investigation could take a year, or more than that.
An investigation was launched by the board immediately after the bridge’s collapse. “Our mission is to determine why something happened, how it happened and to prevent it from recurring,” board chair Jennifer Homendy said at the time, according to CBS Washington.
The preliminary report said that after the blackout, the crew managed to restore it, and then called for assistance from tug boats. The pilot then demanded that the anchor of the ship be dropped. However, it was too late for tug boats to assist or the ship to be anchored.
A second blackout happened when Dali was only a couple of hundred yards away from the bridge. At the time, a marine radio call was made in an attempt to warn waterborne traffic. The tragedy took place shortly after.
According to the report, in May last year, bridge inspectors rated the conditions of the deck, the superstructure and the substructure, declaring they were in “satisfactory condition.” The recent report has revealed only a fraction of the findings. Six construction workers were killed in the tragedy.