Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore taken out by a cargo ship last night.

As bad as it is, very fortunate it occurred late at night and not during the day when its covered in traffic...they are reporting seven cars, one tractor trailer and as many as twenty construction workers that were supposedly on the bridge at the time are all missing...very well could be more.

Prayers for the victims, families and those working the rescue & recovery.

Looks like that ship hit the support almost dead on...wonder if it was deliberate
 
Damn. That’s bad. Definitely suspicious such a solid bullseye by the ship.

Good to know they’re “assessing the condition of the bridge.” :eyeroll:
Sometimes it’s ok to not say anything if you don’t have anything beneficial to add.
 
People wanna jump straight to "It was deliberate" all over social media. Sometimes shyt just happens. Human error, mechanical failure, human neglect, nature, etc. Looks like the ship was having mechanical problems. You can see all the lights go out on it at one point. Major power failure and everything goes out, including rudder control.

Surprised the supports didn't have protective barriers around the to avoid ship strikes. I guess the new bridge will have them. They built some around the Sunshine Skyway bridge in Florida after it happened there.
 
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Not minimizing the loss of life, but this will cut off the port of Baltimore for some time as well…

Agree it seems more like an accident but significant regardless.
 
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fishgutzy said:
I'm skeptical of the "accident" narrative. Cargo pilots have navigated that river so many times. No way this was an accident.
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Narrative?
Here's the thing. Accidents happen, mechanical issues happen, equipment fails. Considering the skinflint owners of these huge ships who prioritize profits over safety you should be surprised it doesn't happen more often.

Not even the first time that ship has hit something.

Dali - Cargo Ship, IMO 9697428, MMSI 563004200, Callsign 9V5283, Flag Singapore - vesseltracker.com

Details for the ship Dali , IMO 9697428, Cargo Ship, Position Chesapeake Bay with current real time AIS position and ship photos by vesseltracker.com.
www.vesseltracker.com
 
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I guess I had no idea such a thing was possible. It seems like it would be an engineering requirement that one strike would not take down every section. But a container ship is a lot of mass, so I'm not surprised now that I see it happen.
 
Early word is blackout/loss of power. Local pilot would be in command not the captain as has been said. In some video you can see the ship turn as power is lost.

 
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Yes sir I have seen more than one Official who has told us so far "THIS WAS NOT TERRORISM" !!
So move along, nothing to see here. OK it was an accident, says the Democrats in Baltimore.

How can anyone declare this was not on purpose or that it was mechanical failure. Just sayin.
 
JohnnyTyler said:
I heard one reporter say the bridge carried 11 million cars a day. That's a lot of traffic to find alternate routes.
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That reporter is an idiot. Annual probably. Puts it at 30,000 daily.

Edit 12.4M in 2023.
 
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JohnnyTyler said:
I heard one reporter say the bridge carried 11 million cars a day. That's a lot of traffic to find alternate routes.
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Low information reporter: 11 million annually maybe. It’s still going to be a pain getting around it. Wonder when we will start seeing ‘supply chain’ issues related to this.
 
Namerifrats said:
People wanna jump straight to "It was deliberate" all over social media. Sometimes shyt just happens. Human error, mechanical failure, human neglect, nature, etc. Looks like the ship was having mechanical problems. You can see all the lights go out on it at one point. Major power failure and everything goes out, including rudder control.

Surprised the supports didn't have protective barriers around the to avoid ship strikes. I guess the new bridge will have them. They built some around the Sunshine Skyway bridge in Florida after it happened there.
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But that level of incompetence only happens in Final Destination movies.
 
There are videos of the ship going dark the. Coming back on and then going dark again before it struck the bridge. So something mechanical certainly will be blamed. However was the mechanical issue intentional or neglect from lack of maintenance or just poor luck? Who knows for now. Sad for those that lost their loved ones.
 
They have an “All hands on deck effort” in Baltimore.
I don’t want my hands on that deck or bridge.
Poor choice of words by the authorities. :-(
 
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NKD said:
Thinking out loud as a layman:

I wonder if a tug was flanking it, if the tug could have pushed it clear? Anybody been on a tug?
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A couple few of them could have kept it off the bridge. I read earlier that they had just untied from the tugs right before this happened.
 
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