MV Dali Hitting Key Bridge in Baltimore - Track and Video Analysis

Hi Sam, Great channel. I'm a marine engineer; here's my guess at what has happened. When a ship leaves port there is a requirement to start stand-by generators for the duration of the voyage out. But sometimes there are other issues, a switch board failure, or auto-control issue and you can lose the lot. it has happened to me a few times over the years. Everything goes off-line and the main engines shut down automatically because they have no feed pumps for fuel, lube oil and air. The emergency generator will usually start - a small diesel housed on the upper deck usually behind the bridge. It gives enough power for the nav gear and some ventilation, and enough power to enable the engineers to get the rest of the gear back on-line. That is probably driving the lights we see come back on but not as many as before. The engineers then go round the engine room and control room and manually switch all the gear back on. That can take some time. But because of the emergency the engineers in this case would have to make a terrible decision to start the main engines immediately to go emergency full astern possibly without supporting pumps and almost certainly with some engine damage. Black smoke is always a sign of incomplete combustion. the massive pumps that supply air to the engine room would be off-line and so the engines would be gasping for air. The fuel would burn but without enough air hence the black smoke. in full-astern mode the rudder would be useless. I really hope the anchor team got off the foredeck before the bridge came down on top of them. Cheers

None of the local Baltimore TV channels are showing the footage of the ship going dark at 01:24:33. They just keep showing the Dali striking the bridge and the collapse. They are not showing the full story that is available to anyone that can see Stream Time LIVE or Sal's reporting at 0800 EST. I live in the Baltimore TV market and the stations that are still covering this live have not once shown the portion of the video that clearly shows the Dali losing power and going dark. They just keep showing the video after it has regained power. It was too late at that point. Great job Sal on providing more of the full story in a timely manner.

I live in the suburbs of Baltimore. I want to thank you for such a clear, calm and concise video on this tragedy. It was confirmed a half hour ago that the 6 missing construction workers are presumed dead. No word on how many vehicles were still on the bridge when the impact happened. All of Maryland is in shock right now.

It’s refreshing to see there is still quality content on YouTube that doesn’t dramatise, states the facts and is respectful to what is a tragedy with real impact to real people. My thoughts go out to all these people. Thank you for your video.

Chief, dont EVER apologize for quality of your video. You literally are doing a better job than MSM.

So I'm Longshoreman at the port of Baltimore and was working Dundalk a couple of hours before this happened, I was told by my union brothers that the ship lost power a couple times why we were discharging and loading the ship. They knew the ship had a power problem before it left port and still decided to set sail.

Twenty five years in the Navy and agree 100% - silence is a terrible thing aboard ship. Great analysis, thank you.

As a Chief Engineer for 20 years with Maersk Lines, onboard a container ship and watching the video I believe only certain events could have taken place. A ship that size has 4 generators, 3 of them should be running & online to support all the engine room machinery, deck machinery, house load, including both a very large (KW), bow thruster, and stern thruster motor, used during maneuvering in & out of port. In order to lose all three generators, and ships power, would be caused by 2 things only: Drop of fuel pressure, or the machinery electrical computer system failed, both causing the generator main power breakers to open, loosing all power, as seen on the video. I believe the issue was low fuel pressure that could be caused by various machinery failures. One area that will be investigated closely is if the Fuel Oil 'Standby' pump was set in "Auto Start/Stop" position. All critical machinery, including the F/O system, consists of 2 pumps/motors that are designed to automatically start if the system pressure drops below a certain set point. If the Fuel Oil standby pump selector switch was not in the Auto Start/Stop position, when the F/O pump that was on line failed the Standby pump did not start and fuel pressure was lost, causing the generators to starve for fuel and once the electrical automation senses a drop in generator speed, it will trip the main power breaker(s), and all power is lost to the ship. Once a ships power is lost (lights going out the first time), the ship's Emergency Generator comes on & is designed to restart a generator engine & re-supply power to the entire ship (lights coming back on). Shortly after the lights come on the Captain realized he was on a collision course for the bridge, he put the ship in Full Astern, causing full fuel pressure to the Main Engine, (black smoke from the stack). The loss of power the second time (lights went out again), was caused by a power surge to the one generator that was supplying all machinery systems, including the Bow Thruster, which the Captain at a last attempt, requested max power to the Bow Thruster, tripping the power back off. When a ship loses power, it loses all steering until the Emergency Generator starts & supplies power to the Steering Hydraulic pumps. Once the power was lost the second time, the vessel course could not be changed, travelling at 9 knots, and collided with the bridge. Michae E. Buckley III, Chief Engineer Maersk Line Ltd

I was in the navy as a Surface Warfare Officer and brought US Navy Warships into port as officer of the deck many times. Losing propulsion/steering in a channel is a WORST CASE scenario and there are often times literally only seconds to recover. The US Navy in fact puts extra redundant engineering equipment online with a 'run it until it breaks' mindset during restricted maneuvering in channels like this to avoid a collision or grounding - it is THAT important. A big ship like this loses control of propulsion/steering and doesn't have tugs to immediately assist they have NO chance to control their movement for some distance/time. Very tragic but thank God it didn't happen during rush hour.

The only source of news about what is going on with shipping. Thanks Sal.

I am a heavy tow pilot on the Mississippi between St. Louis and New Orleans and unfortunately this situation is not as uncommon as one would hope. Less than 24 hours after the Baltimore incident the Mississippi was closed to traffic from MM 160-162 for several hours due to the M/V Thunderbird losing power/control in a very congested, commercial area. Luckily there were/are many tugs and fleet boats in this area and the ship was quickly assisted and able to anchor in the middle of the channel without damage to the vessel or any surrounding infrastructure.

A few things to add. 1) During a blackout the GMDSS radio equipment will work on battery power. ECDIS (Electronic chart display) and VDR (voyage data recorder) work with their own UPS. The engineroom alarm system has its own batteries, normally together with the GMDSS batteries. 2) The second steering gear is connected to the emergency switchboard, but normally it takes a minute for the emergency switchboard too disconnect from the main switchboard and the emergency generator to start. In this minute the normal generators (if switched on stand-by) have a change to start and power everything. 3) The rudder must have water pressure from propeller to have effect. Without the engine the rudder is mostly useless. 4) When giving astern the vessel will start to turn to port or starboard due to the propeller effect. You can't stop this with the rudder, only with a bowthruster. Dragging one anchor will give the vessel also drag on one side and make it turn.

I'm old enough to remember when the mainstream news reported like this. Thank you so much.

Man I drove across the key bridge yesterday afternoon. Twelve hours later and it's gone. What a horrible mess.

I live in Baltimore. As a historian.... up until a few days ago, Dali was an Italian artist known for "The Broken Bridge and The Dream." Locally, "The Dream" packed up and left on "The Exodus" and now we have a broken bridge.

This is excellent reportage. A credit to you. And, an illustration of how the "siloed" nature of the Internet allows for levels of objectivity and depth of coverage that are no longer even attempted on television and radio. Extremely well done.

Thanks for the update. Better than anything in the regular news media.

Never seen your channel before today but, I've been watching news and I've seen a couple of your videos now and the information you have is WAY better than the news outlets.

You may not be satisfied Sal, but your coverage of this very sad and very disruptive event is already vastly better than anyone else. Thank you for compassionate, unbiased, factual reporting.

Absolutely the best and most accurate analysis I’ve seen. I wish everyone would watch this and stop with the conspiracy theories!