Anybody thinking that the condition of the bridge would allow it to withstand the force of a 900-ft container ship is an idiot. Even if it was an 11 out of 10 condition it would fold. Y'all have no idea the amount of energy behind that mass. Combined with the fact that it's a bridge... Not a damn safety net. It was not designed to take that impact
And yet the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge survived an allision with a similar sized container ship unscathed in 2007 because the heavy duty fendering deflected the impact
Agree. Bridge is just a metal structure to handle traffics, not to hold that kind of massively heavy ships. Cargo ship with tons of containers can break anything.
The reporter is questioning the state of the bridge maintenance. Looking at the mass of the ship it would not matter whether the bridge was in excellent condition. This is a ship problem, not a bridge problem.
The first thing I thought when I heard that a bridge in Baltimore had collapsed was that the locals had failed to maintain it. It turned out that my first impression was false, but that changes nothing about the lackadaisical maintenance of infrastructure in this nation. Politicians cannot get it through they pointy heads that once you have built something, especially bridges, that it MUST be PROPERLY maintained.
It was totally the potholes that the crew was working on which caused it. Definitely not a massive ship, vastly exceeding the size of those that existed when the bridge was built with no dolphins (massive pilings designed to take the hit) to prevent it from smashing into the pylon with the force of a skyscraper thrown by superman (srsly, these ships are as big as skyscrapers).
The kinetic energy of a fully loaded 900ft container ship traveling at 8knots, is around 2.5 times the kinetic energy of an Airbus a320 flying at cruising speed. That’s a lot of energy!
@@darthlost so, under water. You know how long the bow of ships like this container ship would be? You need at least a protective barrier like the power poles have, but preferably longer, in a rectangular shape. To slow down that enormous mass.
@@dark6c159 It's too early to say. My first take is they "hit the brakes" which caused a hard careening straight into the pilon. Had they done nothing this might not have happened. We'll find out eventually. When you hit reverse on a ship like that you lose steering because of the backwash over the rudder. I would guess the Captain Sully type perfect response would have been to A. do nothing or B hit the gas and steer for the gap. Awful spot to be in for a sudden emergency and seconds to make a counter-intuitive response.
Kudos to everyone for sending out Mayday notice to warn people to not drive onto the bridge and get everyone possible off the bridge. This could have been much, much worse.
We still don't know how many cars were on the bridge before the alert went out. The alert isn't instantaneous, but even if it were, it will still take a few minutes for traffic to clear.
@@lancasterritzyescargotdine2602 from my understanding, there were no cars on the bridge due to them clearing the bridge with the mayday call. So there were NO cars traveling on the bridge at the time of the crash.
@@Kenya.Kay.MBA... Hopefully, you're right. But there were workers sitting in their cars, since it was raining and foggy, and those had to have gone into the river.
That captain really did exhaust massive effort to try and stop that ship. Within that 60 second time-frame, at that speed....and still managed to recycle ship power twice, full power reversed, and dropped early anchor....because his anchor was dragged for a while before hitting the bridge. Hats off to that captain for at least trying to prevent this from happening.
As a cruise ship bridge officer thank you for this. Not many have the common sense to even recognise you can’t just press the breaks. There is genuinely nothing that could have been don’t to prevent this. Sometimes things are genuinely fate and set in stone and I’m glad people are realising that. Everyone is so fast to blame other in my opinion and my experience nobody was to blame here this was just a tragic accident and what we need to do or what American needs to do is learn from it all we can do now. I have no doubt though some government officials who have no idea what a ship even is will come along and pretend they know what they’re talking about and try and pass blame like they did when that plan made an emergency landing on the Hudson.
nope. this was on purpose, it was an attack against one of the largest ports on the east coast and a mainline north-south of the interstate. Knocked out 2 major traffic avenues in one shot. this was retaliation for the US attacking russia.
@@ryanhelton1865 I've been at Collison Quarters before. Everything they could do was done. There's one thing I find curious, and ask you to answer. Watching a different channel that tracks ships, it appeared that about the time of the loss of power, the rudder was put 10°+ Starboard.
Possibly other port cities should look at having all large ships like this be escorted in and out of port with tug boats pushing the ships past these fragile bridges. It is almost impossible to design bridges with dolphins or similar options to actually stop a ship of this size. Best thing is it happened at 1:30 AM instead of right after lunch.
That should of been standard procedure, I can't understand why there wasn't any escorting tugs until that structure and any others are cleared. A disaster that could of quite possibly been avoided if tugs were still connected.
The tugs escort ships out of the harbor, I'm confused on why they detached before the bridge. Idk if that's normal for them or not but the key bridge is close, should definitely go past it. Wasn't but a few months ago we had another ship run aground out there
@@viking8781 Use to drive tugs a few years back, it was standard practice in the harbor I worked for tugs to escort ships out to the entrance of the harbor until they were in safe waters before the tugs were dismissed by the pilot. To have a ship departing harbor and navigating under a bridge without tug assistance is clear negligence by the port authority for not making it law to have escorting tugs. To tell you the truth, I am disgusted at the level of incompetence that was on display here, I hope heads will roll.
Why are they talking about the condition of the bridge? It could have been brand new, excellent condition l, and it would have collapsed the same way. Bridges aren’t designed to withstand an impact from a 150,000 ton cargo ship.
Bridges are like dominoes. When the ship hit the support, something broke. This, in turn, forced the bridge load to transfer to the rest of the supports. They could not handle the excess load and also failed, which continued a vicious cycle leading to collapse. The bridges design/type could have been a factor. It was over 50 years old, and unlike modern bridges not designed to sustain damage like that. I'm not sure what this bridge was off hand, but a different type, say suspension, might have faired better, not sure.
@@WizelBalan You make good points, but any bridge old or new would've gone down. Perhaps more pilings set before the support would've helped slow the Dali.
Guys. There is no way a piling will withstand a 100,000 ton ship at ~12 kts. It will either be destroyed or yanked off of its foundations. Whether the "health index" is 0 or 100. Comon man.
People don't see the amount of wieght this ship is carreing. Each container that is loaded can wiegh up to 50,000 lbs. Muliply that be 100 or more plus the wieght of the ship. At 8 nots, which is about 5 mph. There is no stopping this ship in less than 5 thousand ft.
@@anthonyflynn2662 whether it was built 50 years ago or yesterday, if you hit it with a massive ship it will go down. As far as I know there are no bridges that are crash proof
Came down like popsicle sticks , because it was hit hard s Directly at a main support. Bad situation. Video show multiple big rig trucks passing over minute/seconds before the impact . Sad for workers on bridge.
If you have independent diesel powered bow thrusters then you can still alter course without main engine so long as you can still control them. In fact the ship I was on could propel the ship forward at up to 5kts on bow thruster power alone.
Barring some unimaginably stupid act of sheer harbor pilot incompetence (which seems highly unlikely), the cargo ship likely lost propulsion and steering capability shortly before the collision, and it had no way to stop nor control its forward momentum in time. Captains and harbor pilots know their line of work very well and don't usually steer or guide their ships into stationary objects they could crash into.
Word is that they did drop anchor & u can see the vessel swinging shifting in the water. Possibly the smoke was the indicator when the ship regained power against the anchor. IMO they did what they could given mechanical failure & size of the ship. The power seems to only come back partially.
This reminds me of the ship that lost power in New Orleans in 1996 and took out half the Riverwalk Mall. Fortunately that one had no loss of life. This is sad😢
And the Amtrak train that went into the river in Louisiana ..a barge hit the rail way bridge not breaking the track..but bending it enough to when the Amtrak crossed in the heavy fog they didn't even know and crashed in the river ..the tug captain didn't even know he had hit a rail bridge.
It's good they notified transportation but I feel bad for the construction crew. I think a year ago there was another freak accident on the same highway where a car crashed on top of 6 construction workers.
The radio recently reported on the anniversary of that tragedy. I feel so badly for our construction workers and their families right now. They’ve suffered so much loss and tragedy in the past year.
Not well reported is that the bridge was closed as soon as the mayday went out which is why there were so few vehicles on the bridge vs the traffic you can see at the beginning of the video.
Insurance companies always gnash their teeth when a loss happens. Their backbones are made of neoprene rubber and their blood runs colder than ice water.
Im an Ironworker. My observation is that in addition to the caisson strike the upper part of the bow made direct contact with the actual bridge structure. Generally speaking, if it was a brand new bridge it would have collapsed, particularly given the mass of that fully loaded vessel and the momentum of the same. I pray for those workers and those in transit. Just a terrible dam thing
These structures are not built with the expectation that they withstand ship impacts any more than skyscrapers are engineered to withstand impacts from aircraft. There's just no reasonable scenario where the bridge survives being smashed by a 1000 foot container ship.
It sounds like the ship is more important than the people still lost, I’m in Baltimore and nobody knows what’s going on…families are waiting around to hear from family members…this is tragic…Baltimore City needs your prayers more now than ever…and we’ve always needed them…God Bless I pray for you
If they didn't get recovered in an hour they're almost certainly dead. Try swimming with work clothes, jackets, boots, and tools on after riding a collapsing bridge, it's not easy
all bridges now have those cameras, so they know how many busses, trucks and cars came on and how many got off...they even can see license plates so they can quickly find out who was killed...at least one person per vehicle...with lic. plate, they can call the owners etc.
You are talking nonsense, everybody that wants to to knows what is going on. I live where I could see the bridge if it were still standing. There is a space in the skyline. Baltimore is not LA or NYC, that is it is not a 24/7 city, there was very little traffic on the bridge at night and it shuts down to one lane it each direction for maintenance. You can see how few vehicles are on it from the video. We do have cell phones by the way.
It's in the bridge ..it records everything ..speed location..communication..I can almost guarantee you this crew did everything they could to regain power and try to avoid this tragedy ..but 3 football fields with thousands of containers on it is kinda hard to stop on a dime .especially when your waiting eagerly for your engine crew to restart the engines...and you get no warning when this happens..our ship had electric start generators .and air start just in case you lose electricity you can regain power with air start generators .not sure of the setup here but looks looks like she went dead a couple times
You can be a very well trained ship pilot but if your ship loses power and the current takes over and your anchors don't work you will have no control over the ship.
This could just be incredibly bad luck. If there's any scandal here, it's be a Boeing- type deal, where the ship was built or maintained cheaply, which resulted in a critical failure, but it doesn't seem like anyone else made a mistake here.
C'mon, the cause of this is the ship lossing power where it did and destroying the piers that support the suspension part of the bridge. Some in the USA are questioning the viability of the bridge that has been there for 50 years, any bridge of its type would come down from such a collision. Bridge construction costs would be prohibitive if they were required to survive even unthinkable circumstance.
The bridge was not fit for purpose. This bridge design is fine over other rivers with no heavy cargo ships like this. No one wanted to spend the money to make it fit for purpose.
@@zeniktorres4320 You are misusing the term "fit for (its) purpose". The purpose of the bridge is to hold the weight of car and truck traffic. That it did well. It was neither built nor designed to be run into by huge, mega-ton boats. That was not "its purpose". Hope this helps.
I just watched a 4+ minute video of the impact and I saw no vehicles on the bridge. There was an 18 wheeler and another truck like a bread truck that finished crossing just before it hit but no visible headlights anywhere else going in either direction. So lets pray that was the case
The main reason for the collision is the blackout. Why they had a blackout is hard to tell but one interesting question is how many auxiliary engines where they running at the time. You would normally run at least two in restricted waters just in case one breaks down. The reason why the lights came on fairly fast is because the emergency generator started automatically. I suspect that the black smoke that we see comes from the auxiliary engines they are trying to restart. They would have had no time to start the main engine. You can forget about going astern with the vessel was doing even though it could explain the turning to starboard. If they got the engine back at the time it would be logical to give full ahead and try to steer under the bridge. Here we see Murphy’s law displayed. I presume that in the future ships of certain size will have to have escort tugs until they are out in open waters.
I think escort tugs past critical structures like bridges should have been the standard for any ship that can take out a pier like that. What was the harbormaster thinking? Come on people. Think safety( and Murphy's Law ).
@@j_117 Yes, unfortunately it often takes a major accident before action is taken. After they have analyzed the content of the ships VDR they will have a better understanding what they did on the bridge. They will also look into the vessels alarm log to see what alarm they got in the engine room.
Port anchor was dropped .depending on the tide if the water was moving in the same direction as the ship then without power it doesn't matter if the rudder is functional or not..water has to be moving for a rudder to work. You can see when the ship last power also..lights went out
This is a contemporary replay of the Tampa Bay Bridge disaster. That one was caused by the ship going off course in fog. This one is loss of power. But the rest is the same.
When Florida's Sunshine Skyway bridge was partly collapsed by a similar incident in 1980, the replacement bridge was built with a series of "structural dolphins" and concrete barriers to protect against ship strikes. Bridges can be designed to minimize the damage caused by impacts.
Incorrect bridge design for the purpose. There is no doubt about that. And decades went by and nothing was done ti improve the bridge so it could be fit for purpose.
Anyone that ever boats knows, when you drop an anchor while moving it will always just drag. Even when you drop anchor once you've "stopped" you will still drag slightly until settling. It isn't a brake pedal. It's like putting your car in park.
The forces involved in this impact were beyond anything a bridge could withstand. Its condition was irrelevant. This is a horrible tragedy, but the crew and workers acted heroically and probably saved many lives. Thank god it wasnt during rush hour.
Our hearts and minds are with American friends! It is a sad day for the USA! I am one of millions of Canadians wishing the best recovery for our friends in the south of the border!
@@gaslitworldf.melissab2897 When Florida's Sunshine Skyway bridge was partly collapsed by a similar incident in 1980, the replacement bridge was built with a series of "structural dolphins" and concrete barriers to protect against ship strikes. Bridges can be designed to minimize the damage caused by impacts.
As a marine engineer my thoughts on this accident.... A ship of this size can have 3k or more kilowatt electric motor for bow Thruster... Even load sharing did not work properly it seems at high load. . when power restored it seems bow Thruster might be operated again in panic so black out two happened . .. Usually ship of this size there is a safety circuit system bow Thruster will work only if there is enough reserve power available on dg .. Some clever guy or someone override system bypassed this safety ... Investigation is goin on... In addition steering gear hydraulic system couldn't able to restart soon after blackout might make the rudder stuck in a position steering to starboard side..series of all events on the engine room and bridge will be recorded in ship vdr and in ecr printer logs... The top 4 will be in trouble especially captain & ce since this happened in the USA and the whole world knowing this... They won't be able to leave the USA soon ...undergoing many investigations further. ..🙏 seriously unlucky
They had enough time to fully stop the traffic going onto the bridge because the ship SOSd to emergency services. The people who were on the bridge were stopped vehicles doing maintenance so they didn't get the memo.
so, watching as of 5.30 the VDR comes into play, it will be weeks/maybe months before we get to the bottom of what actually happend to the ship, going through that whole VDR recording isnt a 5 minute job
also that container ship IF at full capacity of goods, can weigh upto 220,000 tonnes, a concrete column Isnt gonna stop it especially if the concrete is damaged from the element and sea water
Without power, there is usually no steerage way. A ship like this needs to do 7-8 knots to have steerage. If the ship lost power, the rudders were not going to be effective, and when a ship is slowing, it is losing steerage.
All is speculation till the chief engineer onboard the ship speaks. But I agree with what is clear on the surface. The ship did what they could to stop, anchor dropped, power restored and full back down, but it takes a long distance to stop a ship of this size even at such a slow speed. I think the focus is going to shift from the ship to the bridge structure failure.
while i believe the NTSB will do a through investigation into what happened, considering in the video that shows the ship losing power twice before the ship crashed into the bridge, the first thing the NTSB will most likely look at, is the maintenance records of the ship. you don't lose power twice before running into a bridge with a well maintained vessel. the crew appears to have been doing whatever was within their power to prevent disaster, radioing a mayday call, and getting traffic off the bridge was one of professionalism. another was the weighing anchor. the only thing the crew could've done was get people of the bridge and putting out a mayday call. the biggest problem is not rather or not the bridge would withstand it, its like what the former head of the NTSB said, its impossible to build a bridge that can withstand such forces. however i see what CBS is trying to do, and that is put the blame on americas aging infrastructure. nothing can be done to prevent this disaster, the only thing you an do is make sure the boats have enough ability to stop before hitting the bridge piers. putting reefs up before the bridge piers is gonna be key, and among other ways to put artificial stops so the ship doesn't hit. the bridge had those in place, but not enough to save the bridge. ultimately it comes down to getting the bridge rebuilt now, taller, and safer with greater pier protection in mind.
The collision energy transferred to the bridge was roughly equivalent to 80 kg TNT concentrated explosion (assuming 40.000 tonnes ship and 8 knots speed)
That would slow down the time it takes to get to port and get unloaded and back underway. That costs shipping companies time and money tha adds up over time. These ships have insurance for this and lawsuit funds set aside for this and much worse. Much less money than having mandated tug boats.
In the future it should be required that tug boats escort / guide all large vessels under crucial bridges . These ships do not have steerage under a certain speed.
I'm certainly no expert but that sounds like something that could be prohibitively expensive and infeasible. It's a good idea in theory, but are there enough tugboats and crewmembers for them to support such a thing? If every ship needs multiple tugboats to go under every bridge, how much would this increase the cost of shipping?
Bridge was built a couple years before that big Florida collapse, be it had none of the extra safety features retrofitted but yeh, not many bridges would be able to take that kind of hit.
You can see the anchor dropped and being dragged can’t stop that weight with just an anchor. Look at the video the ship is steaming out last night & the power goes out.the ship is moving straight when power comes on the caption throws it in full shutdown and the ship turns to the right. Black smoke from the stacks engine issues
Prayers to the people who perished. Hope they find them soon. That bridge fell perfect just like it was designed to do. Broke off on both approaches and lost the whole bridge deck. I worked on alotta bridges here in Minnesota. We lost 13 people on I 35w bridge fell in the Mississippi River back in I think 07.
It'll hurt Baltimore's economy a bit. Semi trucks will have to reroute and go around with additional traffic jams and the port being temporarily shut down to incoming and outgoing ships. Probably a few hundred millions in economical damage by the time the bridges rebuilt. Not critical hit but enough to say ouch.
@@gaslitworldf.melissab2897 ... commuters will have to take the 895 Harbor Tunnel, which is maybe 4 or 5 mile detour. The big problem is truckers because alot comes through those docks. Not sure how much weight is allowed in the tunnel, so they might have to find a longer way around. It's do-able... just inconvenient. Congestion is gonna be a nightmare though.
It's an alternative route for I 95 so a majority of the traffic can use 95 and the 895 tunnels so mostly Traffic Congestion for Baltimore City.it's more of an impact for the Dundalk(Baltimore County) and Glen Burnie (Anne Arundel County) because it's usually a 25 minute commute using 695 the Bridge that collapse to close to get to the 2 counties. Now it's close to an Hour depending on traffic using the tunnels through Baltimore City.
We are talking about a bridge and channel system built in the late 1970's when container ships carried between 770 to 2950 containers. That means the total dimensions of the ships were much smaller as was the total mass. The bridge s' latest safety score was a 6 out of 9. One thing I noticed was that the channel did not have any side guard abutments when approaching the bridge in the channel, at least not any comparative to the size of todays' ships.. I was on that bridge once in 1998 returning to Baltimore from New York and I remember it being massive. There will be a lot of finger pointing and a lot of 'should haves' tossed around in the coming days. Only time will tell what went wrong and what could have been done different if anything. In the meantime our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the missing.
Why did the bridge not have "dolphins" around the supporting piers? "Dolphins" are massive concrete or stone barricades around the piers that would deflect an errant ship. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida was hit and collapsed in 1980. When rebuilt, the bridge now has "dolphins" around the piers.
I wondered the same thing...or better yet have shallows built around the support piling so and deep draft vessel capable of severe damage could get no where near the bridge .instead it would simply run aground
Ok so all there experience & many miles of travel this happens. I won’t make any assumptions but it’s just not surprising in this world anymore Planes,Trains & Automoboats !
As a Harbour Pilot myself, and having had Piloted this same ship in the past, if there was no propulsion creating sufficient water flow over the rudder, the Pilot would have had very limited ability to steer this vessel. As a river port/harbour, any water flow/current that was flowing out with the ship, would've reduced the flow over the rudder and further reduce the ability to steer. Given the size and draft of this ship, in a confined channel like this, there is also shallow water and bank effect which would've had added more difficulty to an impossible situation. If the vessel had lost rudder control as well as propulsion, even with only light winds blowing onto the port side of the ship and causing it to drift towards the bridge support, there was nothing that could be done by the Pilot. All he could do was to try and reduce the impact, which given the circumstances was an impossible task. The only way to have prevented this happening would've been to have had a tug or tugs escorting it until clear of the bridge. My thoughts go out to the Pilot, as he/she would've done their best to save it, then waiting for the inevitable, knowing how heavy and sad the consequences would be. Especially knowing there were people on the bridge. Sad day for all.
Based on the ship's size, it weighed anywhere between 90,000 and 120,000,000 tons. When we calculate maximum kinetic energy: KE = (1/2)×(mass)(velocity ^2) KE = (1/2)×(120,000,000 kg)×(4.63 m/s)^2 Thus, KE = 1,286,214,000 Joules, or, 1.286 Giga Joules. Thats a little more energy than a lightning strike.
Does a Harbor Crew come onboard and bring the ship into port? If so at what point does a Harbor Crew take control of a foreign vessel? Just curious have no personal expirence or knowledge but have known someone that actually did this for a living.
@@rik4369 The ship was leaving port. There is a pilot on board at this point in both directions but afaik a pilot never takes control. The captain has control, the pilot advises.
@@eljanrimsa5843 Just a wild guess, but I'm thinking they might possibly rebuild that bridge & until that's done, no ships will be traveling thru there. Perhaps if there are ships stuck in the port they will get them out once the debris is cleared, but I don't think even they know what's going to happen there.
They were on the way out of port. They would have (should have had) crew at the ready to drop anchors. It has been confirmed that the port Anchor was deployed and dragging at the time of impact.
wasn't just any bridge... Amajor bridge that collapsed in Baltimore after getting hit by a ship is named for Francis Scott Key, who turned a wartime experience in the early 19th century into the poem that became the national anthem of the United States. Key was a prominent attorney in the region during the first half of the 19th century. In September 1814, two years after the War of 1812 had started between the United States and the British, he was on a ship to negotiate an American prisoner's release and witnessed a 25-hour British bombardment of Fort McHenry.
The force of the ship hitting the support is the equivalent of it being hit by 2 Tomahawk missiles. The forces involved are totally on a different scale.
@@danielc2701 It doesn't matter. Look at any picture of Crimea bridge. It looks solid, with plenty of support piles, while Baltimore bridge was old, and made of metal.
@@michaelg.7520 You want to bet that if I shot 2 Tomahawks into a specific support pillar, even the Crimean bridge would drop at least 2 spans? The reason why the Crimean bridge still stands is because most of what was used to attack it are top down munitions like the 227mm rockets and they hit the upper road surface rather than the supports.
CBS should get their terms right. This ship would have a Master or Captain. In addition it may have also had a Pilot onboard for the departure phase of the vessel out until the open sea. The Pilot would probably also be qualified to Master Mariner status and would have local knowledge of the estuary waters and how to safely navigate such a ship through the channel. He would advise the Master of the ship as they proceeded out and would leave the ship once out at sea. I also wonder why there is no mention here of the vessels bow thrusters which would have been a critical component of the vessels ability to maintain course at low speed.
Im not a cargo ship expert but just researching it, the ship would take 1.8ish miles to totally stop with propulsion fully loaded. So without an engine who knows how long that behemoth would drift specially with the current.
I remember looking at the Key bridge some years ago and thinking that it's structure seemed skimpy for a crossing of that length and height. The piers were slender as was the overhead superstructure. I would be curious to know what the engineering strength factor was at the time it was designed and built. In past decades, and the early part of the twentieth century, the practice was to overbuild bridges to many times the immediately expected weight bearing needed.
Deploying anchors would not stop the momentum. The big question here is ship's hit bridges most pier's have extra structural protection something suggests a design or safety failures within the structure.
Ship is at fault but dang, that bridge looks flimsy..like it should have been built better!! Shouldn’t have sustained that much damage down the line from the impact.
It was built in the 70s and ships back then were also smaller/carried less than today. No bridge would withstand a impact with a ship that big even today
It was an awesome sight to see the Midway fully loaded with all kinds of aircraft riding the rolling waves while waiting for a typhoon to pass right outside Subic Bay in 1984. I was aboard the USS cape Cod (AD 43) also waiting for the typhoon to calm down.
That's a low flying aircraft hazard light. It's on all tall structures to prevent helicopters from running into them at night. You see them on electric pylons as well.
@@johnguttink You see the red blinking lights on top of the bridge? And the cranes? And the stacks on the left and right? If you fly cesna then tell me what those are.
What's to investigate? The ship lost power, you can't steer it without propulsion, ask anybody who owns a motorboat. The fault lies entirely with the absence of barriers to prevent a ship from striking the bridge supports. I can just hear some idiot in a suit saying "that could never happen".
^^ LOL. OK, let’s not bother investigating and find the actual root-cause… which will point to one (or combination) of MANY possible factors that caused the loss of power…. (and in *which* power unit )…and which should then need to be addressed-forward towards future Operations by this same fleet, and others. Yeah, let’s not do that, and just clean up and move on …
Anybody thinking that the condition of the bridge would allow it to withstand the force of a 900-ft container ship is an idiot. Even if it was an 11 out of 10 condition it would fold. Y'all have no idea the amount of energy behind that mass. Combined with the fact that it's a bridge... Not a damn safety net. It was not designed to take that impact
And yet the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge survived an allision with a similar sized container ship unscathed in 2007 because the heavy duty fendering deflected the impact
@@ryanb5189 going the same speed? With the same weight? Under the same conditions?
@@ryanb5189the ship went through the pier protection on the pier it hit
Agree. Bridge is just a metal structure to handle traffics, not to hold that kind of massively heavy ships. Cargo ship with tons of containers can break anything.
F = ma, Newton's second law of motion, or net force is equal to mass times acceleration. Emphasis on massive mass here.
The reporter is questioning the state of the bridge maintenance. Looking at the mass of the ship it would not matter whether the bridge was in excellent condition. This is a ship problem, not a bridge problem.
It's election season, time to push that infrastructure thing for Joe. Just wait.
It was also a continuous truss bridge which means literal "house of cards" as just one link of the truss failing means the rest will also fail.
I will say this it does speak on the potential shape of other bridges/tunnels in Maryland/Baltimore. If that makes sense.
The first thing I thought when I heard that a bridge in Baltimore had collapsed was that the locals had failed to maintain it. It turned out that my first impression was false, but that changes nothing about the lackadaisical maintenance of infrastructure in this nation. Politicians cannot get it through they pointy heads that once you have built something, especially bridges, that it MUST be PROPERLY maintained.
It was totally the potholes that the crew was working on which caused it.
Definitely not a massive ship, vastly exceeding the size of those that existed when the bridge was built with no dolphins (massive pilings designed to take the hit) to prevent it from smashing into the pylon with the force of a skyscraper thrown by superman (srsly, these ships are as big as skyscrapers).
The kinetic energy of a fully loaded 900ft container ship traveling at 8knots, is around 2.5 times the kinetic energy of an Airbus a320 flying at cruising speed. That’s a lot of energy!
The power poles there are protected by concrete you can even read about why on BGE's website on that project. But not the bridge pillars. Why?
@@freekfaro5606They did have barriers.
@@darthlost the bridge pillars? Under water? It doesn't work like that.
They are built right against the pillar, but it is a concrete box.
@@darthlost so, under water. You know how long the bow of ships like this container ship would be? You need at least a protective barrier like the power poles have, but preferably longer, in a rectangular shape. To slow down that enormous mass.
Listen to structural engineers not internet trolls and armchair quarterbacks.
Exactly. Sad you have to say that but it doesn't change the fact it is true.
What about structural engineers who post on RUclips? 🤔🤔🤔
Wtc buildings?
@@dentatusdentatus1592 they would be experts who aren't arm shared quarterbacks or trolls. What an irrelevant thing to say
But don't listen to the RNA expert who said the vaccine wont stop covid. 😂
What it sounds like to me is this ship's crew did everything they could, they just lost critical systems at the worst possible time.
ship was built by Hyundai.
no wonder they lost power.
@@dark6c159 It's too early to say. My first take is they "hit the brakes" which caused a hard careening straight into the pilon. Had they done nothing this might not have happened. We'll find out eventually. When you hit reverse on a ship like that you lose steering because of the backwash over the rudder. I would guess the Captain Sully type perfect response would have been to A. do nothing or B hit the gas and steer for the gap. Awful spot to be in for a sudden emergency and seconds to make a counter-intuitive response.
Let's look at maintenance, or lack there of.
@@peterreid7771 of the ship or the bridge? Cause that bridge could have been made of polished titanium and would still be in the water.
@bobcougar77 I was talking ship, but it sounds like there are issues with bridge maintenance too.
As terrible as this is, it could have been SO much worse if it had happened at 9am....
That's what they say about earthquakes, since the majority have happened the early morning hours.
Kudos to everyone for sending out Mayday notice to warn people to not drive onto the bridge and get everyone possible off the bridge. This could have been much, much worse.
We still don't know how many cars were on the bridge before the alert went out. The alert isn't instantaneous, but even if it were, it will still take a few minutes for traffic to clear.
@@lancasterritzyescargotdine2602 from my understanding, there were no cars on the bridge due to them clearing the bridge with the mayday call. So there were NO cars traveling on the bridge at the time of the crash.
Amen to that! It’s a Miracle more lives weren’t lost. I feel for the heroes doing the recovery. Love U.
@@Kenya.Kay.MBA... Hopefully, you're right. But there were workers sitting in their cars, since it was raining and foggy, and those had to have gone into the river.
That captain really did exhaust massive effort to try and stop that ship. Within that 60 second time-frame, at that speed....and still managed to recycle ship power twice, full power reversed, and dropped early anchor....because his anchor was dragged for a while before hitting the bridge. Hats off to that captain for at least trying to prevent this from happening.
As a cruise ship bridge officer thank you for this. Not many have the common sense to even recognise you can’t just press the breaks.
There is genuinely nothing that could have been don’t to prevent this. Sometimes things are genuinely fate and set in stone and I’m glad people are realising that. Everyone is so fast to blame other in my opinion and my experience nobody was to blame here this was just a tragic accident and what we need to do or what American needs to do is learn from it all we can do now.
I have no doubt though some government officials who have no idea what a ship even is will come along and pretend they know what they’re talking about and try and pass blame like they did when that plan made an emergency landing on the Hudson.
nope. this was on purpose, it was an attack against one of the largest ports on the east coast and a mainline north-south of the interstate. Knocked out 2 major traffic avenues in one shot. this was retaliation for the US attacking russia.
@@lt1montessthis ship if I am not wrong had Indian crew. Why would they do that with 2 American pilots on bridge navigating
@@ryanhelton1865 I've been at Collison Quarters before. Everything they could do was done. There's one thing I find curious, and ask you to answer. Watching a different channel that tracks ships, it appeared that about the time of the loss of power, the rudder was put 10°+ Starboard.
That’s a good troll. 😂
Possibly other port cities should look at having all large ships like this be escorted in and out of port with tug boats pushing the ships past these fragile bridges. It is almost impossible to design bridges with dolphins or similar options to actually stop a ship of this size. Best thing is it happened at 1:30 AM instead of right after lunch.
I wonder if that is logistically feasible or not?
the only Fragile bridges are in Italy
That should of been standard procedure, I can't understand why there wasn't any escorting tugs until that structure and any others are cleared. A disaster that could of quite possibly been avoided if tugs were still connected.
The tugs escort ships out of the harbor, I'm confused on why they detached before the bridge. Idk if that's normal for them or not but the key bridge is close, should definitely go past it. Wasn't but a few months ago we had another ship run aground out there
@@viking8781 Use to drive tugs a few years back, it was standard practice in the harbor I worked for tugs to escort ships out to the entrance of the harbor until they were in safe waters before the tugs were dismissed by the pilot. To have a ship departing harbor and navigating under a bridge without tug assistance is clear negligence by the port authority for not making it law to have escorting tugs. To tell you the truth, I am disgusted at the level of incompetence that was on display here, I hope heads will roll.
😢 Very sad.
My thoughts and prayers are with you all
at this horrendous time.
It must be a CONTROLLED DEMOLITION
Why are they talking about the condition of the bridge? It could have been brand new, excellent condition l, and it would have collapsed the same way. Bridges aren’t designed to withstand an impact from a 150,000 ton cargo ship.
I don’t think anyone expects for it to have just stood still, but the way it crumbled in seconds does raise questions.
The bridge fell on the bow as far as I can see. That is maybe a quarter mile from the bridge.
Bridges are like dominoes. When the ship hit the support, something broke. This, in turn, forced the bridge load to transfer to the rest of the supports.
They could not handle the excess load and also failed, which continued a vicious cycle leading to collapse.
The bridges design/type could have been a factor. It was over 50 years old, and unlike modern bridges not designed to sustain damage like that.
I'm not sure what this bridge was off hand, but a different type, say suspension, might have faired better, not sure.
@@WizelBalan You make good points, but any bridge old or new would've gone down. Perhaps more pilings set before the support would've helped slow the Dali.
So many ships pass under the bridge every day. If you were an engineer, wouldn't you build some kind of protection for the bridge?
Guys. There is no way a piling will withstand a 100,000 ton ship at ~12 kts. It will either be destroyed or yanked off of its foundations. Whether the "health index" is 0 or 100. Comon man.
People don't see the amount of wieght this ship is carreing. Each container that is loaded can wiegh up to 50,000 lbs. Muliply that be 100 or more plus the wieght of the ship. At 8 nots, which is about 5 mph. There is no stopping this ship in less than 5 thousand ft.
8kts = 9.2MPH that is FLYING with 900ft long container ship that weighs probably 300 million pounds!
It must be a CONTROLLED DEMOLITION @@misters2837
It literally stopped much quicker than that after hitting the bridge.
Even on a slightly smallish deepwater container vessel like that one, it’s already thousands, not hundreds of containers.
Try "carrying".
That bridge collapsed like a piece of paper. Life is so delicate 😞
How does a piece of paper collapse?
that bridge is almost 50 years old, weather elements/history of time, metal doesnt last for ever
It wasn’t designed to withstand getting rammed by a 150,000 ton cargo ship unfortunately
@@anthonyflynn2662 whether it was built 50 years ago or yesterday, if you hit it with a massive ship it will go down. As far as I know there are no bridges that are crash proof
Came down like popsicle sticks , because it was hit hard s
Directly at a main support. Bad situation. Video show multiple big rig trucks passing over minute/seconds before the impact . Sad for workers on bridge.
If you lost power you don't have steering... The prop forces water over the rudder.
If you have independent diesel powered bow thrusters then you can still alter course without main engine so long as you can still control them. In fact the ship I was on could propel the ship forward at up to 5kts on bow thruster power alone.
This is a massive undertaking for rescue and safety missions to clean up this disaster. All first responders are doing an excellent job with this.
Barring some unimaginably stupid act of sheer harbor pilot incompetence (which seems highly unlikely), the cargo ship likely lost propulsion and steering capability shortly before the collision, and it had no way to stop nor control its forward momentum in time.
Captains and harbor pilots know their line of work very well and don't usually steer or guide their ships into stationary objects they could crash into.
Word is that they did drop anchor & u can see the vessel swinging shifting in the water. Possibly the smoke was the indicator when the ship regained power against the anchor. IMO they did what they could given mechanical failure & size of the ship. The power seems to only come back partially.
This reminds me of the ship that lost power in New Orleans in 1996 and took out half the Riverwalk Mall. Fortunately that one had no loss of life. This is sad😢
And the Amtrak train that went into the river in Louisiana ..a barge hit the rail way bridge not breaking the track..but bending it enough to when the Amtrak crossed in the heavy fog they didn't even know and crashed in the river ..the tug captain didn't even know he had hit a rail bridge.
It's good they notified transportation but I feel bad for the construction crew. I think a year ago there was another freak accident on the same highway where a car crashed on top of 6 construction workers.
The radio recently reported on the anniversary of that tragedy. I feel so badly for our construction workers and their families right now. They’ve suffered so much loss and tragedy in the past year.
@toxi_com_777 my point as well. Those construction vehicles have to have radios right?
@@toxi_com_777 They did put out a mayday, and I'm surprised nobody thought of contacting the repair crew. You never know
Not well reported is that the bridge was closed as soon as the mayday went out which is why there were so few vehicles on the bridge vs the traffic you can see at the beginning of the video.
There is much gnashing of teeth in the Board of Directors room of some insurance company.
Insurance companies always gnash their teeth when a loss happens. Their backbones are made of neoprene rubber and their blood runs colder than ice water.
Im an Ironworker. My observation is that in addition to the caisson strike the upper part of the bow made direct contact with the actual bridge structure. Generally speaking, if it was a brand new bridge it would have collapsed, particularly given the mass of that fully loaded vessel and the momentum of the same. I pray for those workers and those in transit. Just a terrible dam thing
What that means is that the caisson (or fender) was of insufficient size and strength to protect the bridge.
What's this? An actual sensible comment?
Thank you for being a sane, competent individual. I see you and appreciate you. 👍
These structures are not built with the expectation that they withstand ship impacts any more than skyscrapers are engineered to withstand impacts from aircraft. There's just no reasonable scenario where the bridge survives being smashed by a 1000 foot container ship.
Plane crashes on house, reporter asks... what was the state of the house maintenance, how did the house just crumle in 1 second,,,,
It sounds like the ship is more important than the people still lost, I’m in Baltimore and nobody knows what’s going on…families are waiting around to hear from family members…this is tragic…Baltimore City needs your prayers more now than ever…and we’ve always needed them…God Bless I pray for you
If they didn't get recovered in an hour they're almost certainly dead. Try swimming with work clothes, jackets, boots, and tools on after riding a collapsing bridge, it's not easy
all bridges now have those cameras, so they know how many busses, trucks and cars came on and how many got off...they even can see license plates so they can quickly find out who was killed...at least one person per vehicle...with lic. plate, they can call the owners etc.
You are talking nonsense, everybody that wants to to knows what is going on. I live where I could see the bridge if it were still standing. There is a space in the skyline. Baltimore is not LA or NYC, that is it is not a 24/7 city, there was very little traffic on the bridge at night and it shuts down to one lane it each direction for maintenance. You can see how few vehicles are on it from the video. We do have cell phones by the way.
Yall need to find a woman
The lawyer was right about the impact of these to the life lost ,injuries, business in the city and the consumers.Where is the black box.
On the ship. They can't get on the ship to retrieve it and the crew until it has been deemed safe for rescuers
@@jamesonquarles2760 Actually, they can bring people abroad on the sides or by air.
It's in the bridge ..it records everything ..speed location..communication..I can almost guarantee you this crew did everything they could to regain power and try to avoid this tragedy ..but 3 football fields with thousands of containers on it is kinda hard to stop on a dime .especially when your waiting eagerly for your engine crew to restart the engines...and you get no warning when this happens..our ship had electric start generators .and air start just in case you lose electricity you can regain power with air start generators .not sure of the setup here but looks looks like she went dead a couple times
The ship's 95k tons moving at 8.5 knots. Even at 3 knots, hitting the bridge support would drop the bridge. Tragic.
You can be a very well trained ship pilot but if your ship loses power and the current takes over and your anchors don't work you will have no control over the ship.
My heart goes out to all who are harmed and hurt by this terrible tragedy ❤
Oh this is going to be expensive!
This could just be incredibly bad luck. If there's any scandal here, it's be a Boeing- type deal, where the ship was built or maintained cheaply, which resulted in a critical failure, but it doesn't seem like anyone else made a mistake here.
C'mon, the cause of this is the ship lossing power where it did and destroying the piers that support the suspension part of the bridge. Some in the USA are questioning the viability of the bridge that has been there for 50 years, any bridge of its type would come down from such a collision. Bridge construction costs would be prohibitive if they were required to survive even unthinkable circumstance.
I dare someone to mention politics.
It does remind us that 1/3 of bridges in the US are in need of repair though.
The bridge and that big boat are like a bulldozer against a pie tin. PS: "lossing" is not a word.
The bridge was not fit for purpose. This bridge design is fine over other rivers with no heavy cargo ships like this. No one wanted to spend the money to make it fit for purpose.
@@zeniktorres4320 You are misusing the term "fit for (its) purpose". The purpose of the bridge is to hold the weight of car and truck traffic. That it did well. It was neither built nor designed to be run into by huge, mega-ton boats. That was not "its purpose". Hope this helps.
I just watched a 4+ minute video of the impact and I saw no vehicles on the bridge. There was an 18 wheeler and another truck like a bread truck that finished crossing just before it hit but no visible headlights anywhere else going in either direction. So lets pray that was the case
The main reason for the collision is the blackout. Why they had a blackout is hard to tell but one interesting question is how many auxiliary engines where they running at the time. You would normally run at least two in restricted waters just in case one breaks down. The reason why the lights came on fairly fast is because the emergency generator started automatically. I suspect that the black smoke that we see comes from the auxiliary engines they are trying to restart. They would have had no time to start the main engine. You can forget about going astern with the vessel was doing even though it could explain the turning to starboard. If they got the engine back at the time it would be logical to give full ahead and try to steer under the bridge. Here we see Murphy’s law displayed. I presume that in the future ships of certain size will have to have escort tugs until they are out in open waters.
I certainly hope so - escort tugs are essential.
I think escort tugs past critical structures like bridges should have been the standard for any ship that can take out a pier like that.
What was the harbormaster thinking?
Come on people. Think safety( and Murphy's Law ).
These are the accidents that create those standards. Unfortunately safety regulations are written in blood.
@@rosemarieroth1984It must be a CONTROLLED DEMOLITION
@@j_117 Yes, unfortunately it often takes a major accident before action is taken. After they have analyzed the content of the ships VDR they will have a better understanding what they did on the bridge. They will also look into the vessels alarm log to see what alarm they got in the engine room.
Port anchor was dropped
.depending on the tide if the water was moving in the same direction as the ship then without power it doesn't matter if the rudder is functional or not..water has to be moving for a rudder to work. You can see when the ship last power also..lights went out
This is a contemporary replay of the Tampa Bay Bridge disaster. That one was caused by the ship going off course in fog. This one is loss of power. But the rest is the same.
How sad, this happened at south oadre island a couple of years, ship hit bridge and couple of cars went down.
You can SEE the deployed anchor in the video.
No bridge could have handled that impact, even new.
When Florida's Sunshine Skyway bridge was partly collapsed by a similar incident in 1980, the replacement bridge was built with a series of "structural dolphins" and concrete barriers to protect against ship strikes. Bridges can be designed to minimize the damage caused by impacts.
@@NotExpatJoe
If you want ships THAT big...
Incorrect bridge design for the purpose. There is no doubt about that. And decades went by and nothing was done ti improve the bridge so it could be fit for purpose.
@@zeniktorres4320in 2021 it was noted that the bridge was only in “ fair condition “
The portside anchor was dropped but probably dragged a bit before setting into the bottom
Anyone that ever boats knows, when you drop an anchor while moving it will always just drag. Even when you drop anchor once you've "stopped" you will still drag slightly until settling. It isn't a brake pedal. It's like putting your car in park.
@@codyharney2997Generally anchors are dropped to reduce speed, thereby to reduce impact.
The forces involved in this impact were beyond anything a bridge could withstand. Its condition was irrelevant.
This is a horrible tragedy, but the crew and workers acted heroically and probably saved many lives. Thank god it wasnt during rush hour.
Our hearts and minds are with American friends! It is a sad day for the USA! I am one of millions of Canadians wishing the best recovery for our friends in the south of the border!
A bride with 100% passing grade is still not designed to withstand this type, location and magnitude of impact. And it would not.
but the groom would
Bridge not designed to be hit by great big ship. Weak bridge issue covers every bridge every built.
No bridge is designed to be hit by a ship of any kind. It's like being hit by a train. The train wins.
@@gaslitworldf.melissab2897 When Florida's Sunshine Skyway bridge was partly collapsed by a similar incident in 1980, the replacement bridge was built with a series of "structural dolphins" and concrete barriers to protect against ship strikes. Bridges can be designed to minimize the damage caused by impacts.
As a marine engineer my thoughts on this accident....
A ship of this size can have 3k or more kilowatt electric motor for bow Thruster... Even load sharing did not work properly it seems at high load. . when power restored it seems bow Thruster might be operated again in panic so black out two happened . .. Usually ship of this size there is a safety circuit system bow Thruster will work only if there is enough reserve power available on dg .. Some clever guy or someone override system bypassed this safety ... Investigation is goin on... In addition steering gear hydraulic system couldn't able to restart soon after blackout might make the rudder stuck in a position steering to starboard side..series of all events on the engine room and bridge will be recorded in ship vdr and in ecr printer logs...
The top 4 will be in trouble especially captain & ce since this happened in the USA and the whole world knowing this...
They won't be able to leave the USA soon ...undergoing many investigations further. ..🙏 seriously unlucky
Unbelievable. The people on the ship endured several minutes of knowing what's about to happen, but the folks on the bridge never saw it coming.
According to area politicians, there was no one in the vehicles that were traveling across the bridge. LOL
They had enough time to fully stop the traffic going onto the bridge because the ship SOSd to emergency services. The people who were on the bridge were stopped vehicles doing maintenance so they didn't get the memo.
@Alex-vo2ew ridiculous in itself. No reason why those trucks didn't have radios tuned to the channel to receive maydays pertaining to the bridge
@@evensteven7429 You would think so, yes. This is going to be a case study for decades in several fields.
so, watching as of 5.30 the VDR comes into play, it will be weeks/maybe months before we get to the bottom of what actually happend to the ship, going through that whole VDR recording isnt a 5 minute job
also that container ship IF at full capacity of goods, can weigh upto 220,000 tonnes, a concrete column Isnt gonna stop it especially if the concrete is damaged from the element and sea water
Without power, there is usually no steerage way. A ship like this needs to do 7-8 knots to have steerage. If the ship lost power, the rudders were not going to be effective, and when a ship is slowing, it is losing steerage.
Hi Baltimore. I used to live in Maryland. My heart goes out to those who lost family and friends on this bridge. Hugs and prayers.
We can't catch a break in 2024......stay safe Baltimore
2024? You mean 21st century and 20th century
"Experts" making guesses. Difference of opinion here.
All is speculation till the chief engineer onboard the ship speaks. But I agree with what is clear on the surface. The ship did what they could to stop, anchor dropped, power restored and full back down, but it takes a long distance to stop a ship of this size even at such a slow speed. I think the focus is going to shift from the ship to the bridge structure failure.
while i believe the NTSB will do a through investigation into what happened, considering in the video that shows the ship losing power twice before the ship crashed into the bridge, the first thing the NTSB will most likely look at, is the maintenance records of the ship. you don't lose power twice before running into a bridge with a well maintained vessel.
the crew appears to have been doing whatever was within their power to prevent disaster, radioing a mayday call, and getting traffic off the bridge was one of professionalism. another was the weighing anchor.
the only thing the crew could've done was get people of the bridge and putting out a mayday call.
the biggest problem is not rather or not the bridge would withstand it, its like what the former head of the NTSB said, its impossible to build a bridge that can withstand such forces.
however i see what CBS is trying to do, and that is put the blame on americas aging infrastructure.
nothing can be done to prevent this disaster, the only thing you an do is make sure the boats have enough ability to stop before hitting the bridge piers. putting reefs up before the bridge piers is gonna be key, and among other ways to put artificial stops so the ship doesn't hit.
the bridge had those in place, but not enough to save the bridge. ultimately it comes down to getting the bridge rebuilt now, taller, and safer with greater pier protection in mind.
It broke like the bridge I made in shop class when we put the weight on it.
1:22 "...we see a lot of loss of propulsions here in New York harbor..."
The collision energy transferred to the bridge was roughly equivalent to 80 kg TNT concentrated explosion (assuming 40.000 tonnes ship and 8 knots speed)
Your estimate for the weight is extra low. It's a 100,000 tonnes ship at least.
@@danielc2701 Yes, you're probably right, thanks!
My prayers for all involved in this tragic event. May GOD Bless All.
TUG BOATS would have prevented this. Why don't they mandate escort Tugs until ships are clear of bridges????
The answer is probably money
@@ispguy2001 most likely a combination of money and availability.
That would slow down the time it takes to get to port and get unloaded and back underway. That costs shipping companies time and money tha adds up over time. These ships have insurance for this and lawsuit funds set aside for this and much worse. Much less money than having mandated tug boats.
not everywere is required for tugboats, they are only required if the space between docks is too small i believe
Companies fight any regulations or requirements that increase operating costs.
In the future it should be required that tug boats escort / guide all large vessels under crucial bridges . These ships do not have steerage under a certain speed.
I'm certainly no expert but that sounds like something that could be prohibitively expensive and infeasible. It's a good idea in theory, but are there enough tugboats and crewmembers for them to support such a thing? If every ship needs multiple tugboats to go under every bridge, how much would this increase the cost of shipping?
What about some sort of concrete barriers to take the brunt? (I heard there already are some but not sure how they’re made)
Bridge was built a couple years before that big Florida collapse, be it had none of the extra safety features retrofitted but yeh, not many bridges would be able to take that kind of hit.
You can see the anchor dropped and being dragged can’t stop that weight with just an anchor. Look at the video the ship is steaming out last night & the power goes out.the ship is moving straight when power comes on the caption throws it in full shutdown and the ship turns to the right. Black smoke from the stacks engine issues
Prayers to the people who perished. Hope they find them soon.
That bridge fell perfect just like it was designed to do. Broke off on both approaches and lost the whole bridge deck. I worked on alotta bridges here in Minnesota. We lost 13 people on I 35w bridge fell in the Mississippi River back in I think 07.
Measuring in football fields again unironically lol
and the ships weight will be measured in African Bull elephants!
@@marviwilson1853 should be measured in ReFrigerator Perry's to stay with the theme x 335 lbs
How vital is this bridge to Baltimore?
Generally used by people going to work, so probably no concern to the residents.
It'll hurt Baltimore's economy a bit. Semi trucks will have to reroute and go around with additional traffic jams and the port being temporarily shut down to incoming and outgoing ships. Probably a few hundred millions in economical damage by the time the bridges rebuilt. Not critical hit but enough to say ouch.
@@Sylvershade I wonder if there is a ferry service that will help people who need to cross daily.
@@gaslitworldf.melissab2897 ... commuters will have to take the 895 Harbor Tunnel, which is maybe 4 or 5 mile detour. The big problem is truckers because alot comes through those docks. Not sure how much weight is allowed in the tunnel, so they might have to find a longer way around. It's do-able... just inconvenient. Congestion is gonna be a nightmare though.
It's an alternative route for I 95 so a majority of the traffic can use 95 and the 895 tunnels so mostly Traffic Congestion for Baltimore City.it's more of an impact for the Dundalk(Baltimore County) and Glen Burnie (Anne Arundel County) because it's usually a 25 minute commute using 695 the Bridge that collapse to close to get to the 2 counties. Now it's close to an Hour depending on traffic using the tunnels through Baltimore City.
We are talking about a bridge and channel system built in the late 1970's when container ships carried between 770 to 2950 containers. That means the total dimensions of the ships were much smaller as was the total mass. The bridge s' latest safety score was a 6 out of 9. One thing I noticed was that the channel did not have any side guard abutments when approaching the bridge in the channel, at least not any comparative to the size of todays' ships.. I was on that bridge once in 1998 returning to Baltimore from New York and I remember it being massive.
There will be a lot of finger pointing and a lot of 'should haves' tossed around in the coming days. Only time will tell what went wrong and what could have been done different if anything. In the meantime our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the missing.
The mere fact that the cargo ship stayed in tact and the bridge crumbled should be an indication of the force the cargo ship was coming with.
They did drop Anchor
Where was the safety pillows around the bridge column
Why did the bridge not have "dolphins" around the supporting piers? "Dolphins" are massive concrete or stone barricades around the piers that would deflect an errant ship. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida was hit and collapsed in 1980. When rebuilt, the bridge now has "dolphins" around the piers.
I wondered the same thing...or better yet have shallows built around the support piling so and deep draft vessel capable of severe damage could get no where near the bridge .instead it would simply run aground
man that has unlocked a new fear for me, and i go through some bridges that are also around a lot of these big ships off the port near long beach
I'm hearing it was, in fact, being towed by tugs before it reached the bridge.
Ok so all there experience & many miles of travel this happens.
I won’t make any assumptions but it’s just not surprising in this world anymore
Planes,Trains & Automoboats !
How many power checks does a boat that size have to do before leaving port?
Sucks knowing people may have survived the fall into the water..but not able to get out of their cars due to the water pressure
I can see all bridge bases being re-inforced with a larger sub-slab to direct large ships away from the support, in all other major ship ports.
4 hours ago Sal reported they dropped their anchor. "What is going on with Shipping"
As a Harbour Pilot myself, and having had Piloted this same ship in the past, if there was no propulsion creating sufficient water flow over the rudder, the Pilot would have had very limited ability to steer this vessel. As a river port/harbour, any water flow/current that was flowing out with the ship, would've reduced the flow over the rudder and further reduce the ability to steer. Given the size and draft of this ship, in a confined channel like this, there is also shallow water and bank effect which would've had added more difficulty to an impossible situation. If the vessel had lost rudder control as well as propulsion, even with only light winds blowing onto the port side of the ship and causing it to drift towards the bridge support, there was nothing that could be done by the Pilot. All he could do was to try and reduce the impact, which given the circumstances was an impossible task. The only way to have prevented this happening would've been to have had a tug or tugs escorting it until clear of the bridge.
My thoughts go out to the Pilot, as he/she would've done their best to save it, then waiting for the inevitable, knowing how heavy and sad the consequences would be. Especially knowing there were people on the bridge. Sad day for all.
A tragedy but could have been worse if it happened during rush hour, I hope everyone is accounted for
Based on the ship's size, it weighed anywhere between 90,000 and 120,000,000 tons.
When we calculate maximum kinetic energy:
KE = (1/2)×(mass)(velocity ^2)
KE = (1/2)×(120,000,000 kg)×(4.63 m/s)^2
Thus, KE = 1,286,214,000 Joules, or, 1.286 Giga Joules.
Thats a little more energy than a lightning strike.
Where were tug boats ?
Not required in Port of Baltimore to navigate the bridge. Want to make a bet that this will change?
Does a Harbor Crew come onboard and bring the ship into port? If so at what point does a Harbor Crew take control of a foreign vessel?
Just curious have no personal expirence or knowledge but have known someone that actually did this for a living.
@@vintagelady1Without a bridge they won't need tug boats
@@rik4369 The ship was leaving port. There is a pilot on board at this point in both directions but afaik a pilot never takes control. The captain has control, the pilot advises.
@@eljanrimsa5843 Just a wild guess, but I'm thinking they might possibly rebuild that bridge & until that's done, no ships will be traveling thru there. Perhaps if there are ships stuck in the port they will get them out once the debris is cleared, but I don't think even they know what's going to happen there.
Drop anchor? first you need to muster the deck crew at the anchors. I doubt they were out there.
They were on the way out of port. They would have (should have had) crew at the ready to drop anchors. It has been confirmed that the port Anchor was deployed and dragging at the time of impact.
I've heard a few reports that say they did drop anchor. It just wasn't enough. Too heavy, too fast. The anchor just dragged.
Letting go the anchors minute before crash would do nothing but stretch out the chain.
It might contribute to a 10% decrease in speed but you are fundamentally correct.
wasn't just any bridge...
Amajor bridge that collapsed in Baltimore after getting hit by a ship is named for Francis Scott Key, who turned a wartime experience in the early 19th century into the poem that became the national anthem of the United States.
Key was a prominent attorney in the region during the first half of the 19th century. In September 1814, two years after the War of 1812 had started between the United States and the British, he was on a ship to negotiate an American prisoner's release and witnessed a 25-hour British bombardment of Fort McHenry.
Meanwhile Crimea bridge sustained drone / missile attacks, and still in good condition. USA should asks Russia for some architects. 🤣
The force of the ship hitting the support is the equivalent of it being hit by 2 Tomahawk missiles. The forces involved are totally on a different scale.
@@danielc2701 It doesn't matter. Look at any picture of Crimea bridge. It looks solid, with plenty of support piles, while Baltimore bridge was old, and made of metal.
@@michaelg.7520 You want to bet that if I shot 2 Tomahawks into a specific support pillar, even the Crimean bridge would drop at least 2 spans? The reason why the Crimean bridge still stands is because most of what was used to attack it are top down munitions like the 227mm rockets and they hit the upper road surface rather than the supports.
Everyone wants to blame someone, but something like this usually only happens after multiple failures from multiple parties
CBS should get their terms right. This ship would have a Master or Captain. In addition it may have also had a Pilot onboard for the departure phase of the vessel out until the open sea. The Pilot would probably also be qualified to Master Mariner status and would have local knowledge of the estuary waters and how to safely navigate such a ship through the channel. He would advise the Master of the ship as they proceeded out and would leave the ship once out at sea. I also wonder why there is no mention here of the vessels bow thrusters which would have been a critical component of the vessels ability to maintain course at low speed.
Im not a cargo ship expert but just researching it, the ship would take 1.8ish miles to totally stop with propulsion fully loaded. So without an engine who knows how long that behemoth would drift specially with the current.
I'd like to know why the lights were coming on an off. That should not be happening.
Bet that was a thought on the ship too!
Loss of power
The power went and was restored…. as many times as you saw it go on and off.
The brain rot in these comments is staggering
I remember looking at the Key bridge some years ago and thinking that it's structure seemed skimpy for a crossing of that length and height.
The piers were slender as was the overhead superstructure. I would be curious to know what the engineering strength factor was at the time it was designed and built. In past decades, and the early part of the twentieth century, the practice was to overbuild bridges to many times the immediately expected weight bearing needed.
YES AND THE LIGHT WEIGHT MATERIALS ALSO.
Deploying anchors would not stop the momentum. The big question here is ship's hit bridges most pier's have extra structural protection something suggests a design or safety failures within the structure.
Ship is at fault but dang, that bridge looks flimsy..like it should have been built better!! Shouldn’t have sustained that much damage down the line from the impact.
It was built in the 70s and ships back then were also smaller/carried less than today. No bridge would withstand a impact with a ship that big even today
Sad
It was an awesome sight to see the Midway fully loaded with all kinds of aircraft riding the rolling waves while waiting for a typhoon to pass right outside Subic Bay in 1984. I was aboard the USS cape Cod (AD 43) also waiting for the typhoon to calm down.
Why are the tall power poles protected by concrete, but the pillars of the bridge obviously not?
You're kidding, right?
@@ButThatsShacksTrain
English Lit major . Give them a break.
That was one of those Bidenomics bridges!
Did the bridge Stop. The. Ship!?
Shipping is under unregulated, this episode will help regulate america into a stand still economy
TRILLIONS of dollars in debt and we can't afford a pile of rocks to protect bridge supports.
Praying 🙏 for all those unaccounted for
@1:23 When the last section on the right started to go down, there was a flash. Are there electricity cables running or was it an explosion?
That's a low flying aircraft hazard light. It's on all tall structures to prevent helicopters from running into them at night. You see them on electric pylons as well.
@@danielc2701 No it’s not, I fly Cessna.
@@johnguttink You see the red blinking lights on top of the bridge? And the cranes? And the stacks on the left and right? If you fly cesna then tell me what those are.
Keep sending Ukraine money.....
The Ukraines needs our money, we haven't made enough billionaires there yet.
What has this got to do with this dreadful disaster.?
And your Israeli buddies
What's to investigate? The ship lost power, you can't steer it without propulsion, ask anybody who owns a motorboat. The fault lies entirely with the absence of barriers to prevent a ship from striking the bridge supports. I can just hear some idiot in a suit saying "that could never happen".
^^
LOL.
OK, let’s not bother investigating and find the actual root-cause… which will point to one (or combination) of MANY possible factors that caused the loss of power…. (and in *which* power unit )…and which should then need to be addressed-forward towards future Operations by this same fleet, and others.
Yeah, let’s not do that, and just clean up and move on …