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

Updated...13 (not 20) construction workers missing. Two survivors have been pulled from the water.

Bridge collapsed on top of the bow of the ship...its not going anywhere anytime soon.
 
Long_Hunter said:
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
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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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Lights flickered on the ship prior to the hit, initial report is mechanical failure. Occam's Razor and all. Not discounting other causes, but accident is #1 on the list.
 
Chuckman said:
Lights flickered on the ship prior to the hit, initial report is mechanical failure. Occam's Razor and all. Not discounting other causes, but accident is #1 on the list.
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Are you talking about the short clip in the OP??? Or some other video?

It was already aimed at the support, when are you suggesting the failure happened? Like a second before it hit?
 
Get Off My Lawn said:
Why didn’t they apply the parking brake, drop anchor, as soon as they realized they weren’t in control?
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Boats of that size/mass can't just stop, some take 1/4 - 1/2 mile to even start executing turns
Think about a tractor trailer vs. a sports car - same kind of difference
A smaller boat with less mass, yea that might work but something that big/heavy - no way.

You can see the power go out and then it comes back on and goes out again before regaining power before impact.

I would be tempted to blame 'failure to maintain vehicle' - I'm sure most of us have had employers that put the cheapest tires on our work vehicles and that kind of thing. Why you break down, cause you didn't fix X . . .
 
alpharius said:
Are you talking about the short clip in the OP??? Or some other video?

It was already aimed at the support, when are you suggesting the failure happened? Like a second before it hit?
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Here is the video:

@ 01:23 or so it comes into view and @ 01:28 and change it hits and comes down
Time stamp is in the upper left corner



You can see the boat go dark 2x before impact and at a point slightly preceding impact, a plume of black smoke comes out of the rear of the boat.
 
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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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Isn’t that what @avenomusduck does? Or something close?
 
I talked to a buddy that "has connections" and apparently, there was a fire on the ship prior to impact.
:rolleyes: 😬
 
I have a friend who travels this bridge regularly for work as he works all over the MD/DE/VA area. He’s expecting a traffic nightmare for months, more likely over a year, considering the snail speed at which they normally do road construction.

I can only imagine being on the bridge as it happened. Definitely something nightmares are made of!
 
I was mate on a tug for 3 years in the early 70s, before I went to NC State. We did specialty towing and equipment handling, not what the union tugs do in Baltimore. I think the tugs only help get them away from the dock. Once they are in the channel headed out, they are on their own. If there had been a tug alongside, it would not have made much difference, when they were underway at more than a knot. That vessel is heavy!

Also, if the power went out, it would have been difficult to keep the ship headed to a target, if it was a terrorist act. Where it went was determined by wind, tide and bad luck.
 
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Get Off My Lawn said:
That’s horrific.
All the while my whole family and I are on a plane waiting to take off, delayed by an “abnormality on the belly of the plane. Waiting on a specialist to inspect the aircraft”.
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We landed KLM & Delta airlines sucks donkey kong.
“You can make your next flight”. 3 extremely athletic men at a full run through the airport. Delta was aware there was a group of us from a late plane & they wouldn’t hold the doors two minutes. We were able to see them close the doors.
 
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Let the SCAM Pain event begin. Ding Dong and Ho Ho will line the pockets of the Democrats in charge.

Page 2 will be how it will disproportionately affect minority voters in the election.



The Real Priority;

How to build the bridge back should be the first priority and try to protect this from happening again.
 
Diablos said:
Francis Scott Key bridge...

Racist bridge anyway, now a new one can be built/named for someone more deserving
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George Floyd memorial bridge!! Or the Newcomer’s welcome bridge? Is there bridge named for Beau Biden yet???? Just asking
 
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35,000 vehicles a day traverse that bridge (well, they did). This is blocking all the ports, in and out. All vehicle traffic now have to either go through the tunnel (height and hazardous cargo requirements) or bypass the city. This is a big deal. So many people are affected, so much money, not to mention the people who lost their lives.
 
Chuckman said:
35,000 vehicles a day traverse that bridge (well, they did). This is blocking all the ports, in and out. All vehicle traffic now have to either go through the tunnel (height and hazardous cargo requirements) or bypass the city. This is a big deal. So many people are affected, so much money, not to mention the people who lost their lives.
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And the global supply chain issues too from the port being closed
 
Im sure they have cameras and what not but I dont see how in the hell the guy at the helm can see where he is going with containerized freight stacked to the sky.
 
amnesia said:
Imagine seeing this on the news just to realize you were the last car that made it across only seconds away from possible death.
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Been there. going back to detroit back from chicago, wife wanted to get one last takeout order from a restaurant she liked. We were already going to be driving through a winter storm at night, so i was not happy. That 15min delay is almost certainly the reason we were late to the killer pileup of a few hundred cars on I-94, at night, in an ice storm, in the middle of nowhere.
And we had food to eat on our detour.
 
BigWaylon said:
Isn’t that what @avenomusduck does? Or something close?
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Thanks for mention Waylon but I work for a dredging company...what you are thinking is ship assist ...very different and highly specialized operation.
Years back I sailed under that bridge probably 1090 or more times over several years moving mud from Curtis Bay to build a bird sanctuary called Hart Miller Island.

This morning incident is tragic indeed and speculation abounds as to what the actual cause was....
When any vessel loses power weather propulsion or electric control sphincters pucker ...
 
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I didn't read to much on this yet.. Was there a Ship Pilot onboard for maneuvering thru US ports?
 
Mirac said:
I didn't read to much on this yet.. Was there a Ship Pilot onboard for maneuvering thru US ports?
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I have heard that there were two local Baltimore pilots on board. I don't know if that's true the info came from a friend of mine in the merchant mariner business.
 
Distributed earlier. Supports the news that the crew called a mayday with a ship without control/power.

I'm not discounting other possibilities, but I will wait until there's more information on other things until I knee-jerk. Social media is blowing up with all sorts of conspiracy theories.

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Fox news reports that the Governor said that the early Mayday call saved lives, DOT shutdown the bridge to traffic, Mayday was made when the ship was leaving the port.
 
 
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