Maryland: Ship hits Francis Scott Key Bridge causing it to collapse

[Dashinka 24,479]

Breaking now.  Prayers for those involved.  Second link has the video.

 

Maryland: Ship hits Francis Scott Key Bridge causing it to collapse

 

https://www.foxnews.com/us/maryland-ship-hits-francis-scott-key-bridge-causing-collapse

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13239111/Maryland-Key-Bridge-collapses-struck-large-container-ship.html

Edited March 26 by Dashinka

[Boiler 45,445]

On this morning's news CNN have confirmed it was a boat not a ship and that it weighs several hundred tons.

[Dashinka 24,479]

1 hour ago, Boiler said:

On this morning's news CNN have confirmed it was a boat not a ship and that it weighs several hundred tons.

I heard it was a large container ship that lost power/propulsion.

 

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/baltimore-bridge-collapse-03-26-24-intl-hnk/index.html

[Boiler 45,445]

CNN and fake news

 

 

Also here for the shipping angle

 

 

[yuna628 9,671]

Its been a heck of a weird day. Being woken up early in the morning to my husband mumbling "parents won't stop txting me... bridge has collapsed. they're freaking out!" 

 

and me half asleep being very confused. "which one? our county bridge?"

 

"no no.. baltimore"

 

"the bay bridge?!"

 

"no baltimore or something"

 

We appreciated the concern, but his family have no conception that we're really quite far from Baltimore, but I think his parents associate the key bridge with ANY bridge they've been on in this state at any given time.

 

It was a beautiful bridge. So many memories, used to look on it from my house growing up. His first trip to the US, we took photos of it from Ft McHenry. 

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/transportation/key-bridge-collapse-YDNMRSLMDREE7ADUZJQFQJ3WDA/

 

I really don't understand what the ship was doing there and why it wasn't being tugged. Lordy.. it's going to be so expensive to rebuild. Traffic will be a nightmare.

Edited March 26 by yuna628

[millefleur 5,046]

54 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

I really don't understand what the ship was doing there and why it wasn't being tugged. Lordy.. it's going to be so expensive to rebuild. Traffic will be a nightmare.

Supposedly they lost control of the ship and its propulsion (note: I know nothing about sailing.) It seems insane though that something like this could fail to such a degree that they hit the pillar and bring down the whole bridge....perhaps one of those rare "one in a million" type accidents. I suspect the company who owns the ship will pay out major money in damages. 

[Boiler 45,445]

Baltimore Bridge is falling down
Falling down, falling down
Baltimore Bridge is falling down
My fair lady

Baltimore Bridge is falling down
Falling down, falling down
Baltimore Bridge is falling down
I am here lady

Baltimore Bridge is falling down
Falling down, falling down
Baltimore Bridge is falling down
My fair lady

Baltimore Bridge is falling down
Falling down, falling down
Baltimore Bridge is falling down
My fair lady

Baltimore Bridge is falling down
Falling down, falling down
Baltimore Bridge is falling down
I am here lady

[Dashinka 24,479]

1 hour ago, yuna628 said:

Its been a heck of a weird day. Being woken up early in the morning to my husband mumbling "parents won't stop txting me... bridge has collapsed. they're freaking out!" 

 

and me half asleep being very confused. "which one? our county bridge?"

 

"no no.. baltimore"

 

"the bay bridge?!"

 

"no baltimore or something"

 

We appreciated the concern, but his family have no conception that we're really quite far from Baltimore, but I think his parents associate the key bridge with ANY bridge they've been on in this state at any given time.

 

It was a beautiful bridge. So many memories, used to look on it from my house growing up. His first trip to the US, we took photos of it from Ft McHenry. 

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/transportation/key-bridge-collapse-YDNMRSLMDREE7ADUZJQFQJ3WDA/

 

I really don't understand what the ship was doing there and why it wasn't being tugged. Lordy.. it's going to be so expensive to rebuild. Traffic will be a nightmare.

 

58 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Supposedly they lost control of the ship and its propulsion (note: I know nothing about sailing.) It seems insane though that something like this could fail to such a degree that they hit the pillar and bring down the whole bridge....perhaps one of those rare "one in a million" type accidents. I suspect the company who owns the ship will pay out major money in damages. 

The second video @Boiler posted has a pretty good hypothesis.  You can see the ships lights go out which I guess was an indication it lost power and and steering.  I heard they sent out an SOS and apparently dropped an anchor to try and arrest the forward movement.  As to tugging out of the harbor, I am not sure if that is a requirement for a port like Baltimore.

[Ban Hammer 13,327]

1 hour ago, millefleur said:

Supposedly they lost control of the ship and its propulsion (note: I know nothing about sailing.) It seems insane though that something like this could fail to such a degree that they hit the pillar and bring down the whole bridge....perhaps one of those rare "one in a million" type accidents. I suspect the company who owns the ship will pay out major money in damages. 

a friend of mine who in cybersecurity wondered if the ship's electronics might have been hacked..........

[Boiler 45,445]

22 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

 

The second video @Boiler posted has a pretty good hypothesis.  You can see the ships lights go out which I guess was an indication it lost power and and steering.  I heard they sent out an SOS and apparently dropped an anchor to try and arrest the forward movement.  As to tugging out of the harbor, I am not sure if that is a requirement for a port like Baltimore.

Seems they lost power twice.She is a Neopanamax I do not think Baltimore can take the really big ships, bit still pretty big. A tug is not needed or required at this point.

 

9 years old and why the electrics went I do not know.

[Boiler 45,445]

 

An update, so 100,000 tons comes to a sudden stop from c8 knots, well you can imagine the energy that impacts.

 

Many moons ago I used to sale across the Channel and you always need to be aware that you had to keep out of their way, it took miles for them to stop, and the ships were a lot smaller then.

 

I had to go down yesterday morning and the roads were covered in ice/snow/mush. A couple of times I twitched despite going slow, now if you keep it straight with minor adjustments you are ok but otherwise very easy to lose it, seems this is what happened here, they lost their steering with the power outage, let go the anchor but that would cause you to twist, power came back on but by that time it was too late, slammed it in reverse probably that caused the black smoke due to the bunker fuel they use, but it would have taken a long time to bring it to a stop. And you can not effectively steer in reverse.

[yuna628 9,671]

40 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Seems they lost power twice.She is a Neopanamax I do not think Baltimore can take the really big ships, bit still pretty big. A tug is not needed or required at this point.

 

9 years old and why the electrics went I do not know.

Big ships like this come through small eastern shore towns and it's required to tug them through the canal and out past many of our bridges, we walk trails along the canals all the time and see big Maersks being tugged, so I don't know why it wouldn't be here. From the way I've heard it, operators can request a tug if they are having problems, and they did not do so. The ship had problems in the port before they left. A friend saw thick smoke coming from the ship yesterday at the port.

Edited March 26 by yuna628

[Boiler 45,445]

Some places require these ships to use cleanish fuel within their jurisdiction, I do not know if this applies to the US but say it was going into or out of Rotterdam it would switch to the cleaner fuel and then Bunker Fuel when it had cleared.

 

Here is a video on how to start the ship and the need for electrical power.

 

 

This is not a canal.

 

Sol is on CNN now!

 

 

[Boiler 45,445]

He just said that it would take a mile to stop. also speculated on the smoke which could be due to a couple of reasons. They have data recorders like Aircraft.

 

Last inspected in September by Coastguard

 

Once the power went that was game over, plus of course this is a 50 year old bridge and whilst this is not a mega Containership, they are too big to use Baltimore, it is a lot bigger than the ships of the time.

 

The size of 2 WW2 Aircraft Carriers..

[millefleur 5,046]

1 hour ago, Boiler said:

Once the power went that was game over, plus of course this is a 50 year old bridge and whilst this is not a mega Containership, they are too big to use Baltimore, it is a lot bigger than the ships of the time.

Like many engineering disasters/accidents, many little things going wrong and aligning that all lead to one big boom.