Ship distress alert in Baltimore halted bridge traffic and averted greater tragedy

WASHINGTON — As a skyscraper-sized cargo ship approached perilously close to Washington’s largest bridge, Baltimorein Marylandus U.Swhich transported more than 30,000 cars a day, the crew of the Dali vessel issued an urgent “mayday” (danger, in English), hoping to avoid a disaster on Tuesday, 26.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore hailed those who carried out the quick work as “heroes” and said they saved lives, but the scale of the destruction was catastrophic and will likely have far-reaching impacts for the economy and travel on the East Coast. of the USA in the coming months.

Most of the 1.6-mile bridge collapsed, sending at least eight construction workers repairing road holes into the 8-degree Celsius waters of the Patapsco River. Two were rescued, including one in a very serious condition. Authorities announced on Tuesday night that the remaining six were presumed dead and the search was suspended. The search resumed on the morning of this Wednesday, 27th.

The collapse interrupted maritime traffic in the port of Baltimore — one of the largest in the country — and cut off a crucial portion of the Baltimore Beltway, which is also an important thoroughfare in the busy corridor between washington It is New York.

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The impact led to a scene of total destruction—parts of the bridge disfigured, containers open like tin cans, and the cargo ship wedged beneath fallen debris. Authorities turned to Hollywood to capture the magnitude of what happened.

“This is a tragedy you can never imagine,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said at a news conference. “You never think you would see… The Key Bridge literally come down like that. It looked like something out of an action movie.”

Video showed a crumpled section of the 47-year-old bridge hanging from the bow of the ship, which was loaded with containers and had a large gash in the hull. Helicopters buzzed overhead and boats with emergency lights flashing aimed at the water. Divers entered the river, which is about 15 meters deep.

Moore said a preliminary investigation indicated the crash was an accident. The governor said the Dali boat quickly lost power and propulsion before hitting the bridge. In the video, you can see the boat’s lights turning off and on before the crash, and the ship appears to be adrift.

Workers were Latino

Marquis Neal, 48, who lives in the Turner Station community near the bridge, said the crash woke him up. “It felt like a huge bomb,” he said. “The house was shaking. The wind… there was a strong gust. Then it just stopped. I thought, is this an earthquake? Then, just five minutes later, all you heard were sirens. Everything was going crazy.”

Campos said he was not working on Monday night, but fell out of bed around 5am when a colleague called him to tell him about the tragedy. Campos, who speaks only Spanish, said the workers were on break, sitting near their vehicles, when the bridge collapsed. According to him, all six missing people are Latinos. “I’m really sad right now,” Campos said. “These are my co-workers and friends.”

Campos said working on the bridge is harrowing. Construction crews are constantly concerned about drivers speeding, and the bridge “moves a lot” due to its design and engineering. Even so, Campos said he could never have imagined the structure would collapse.

The president of the National Transportation Safety Board said the construction workers were employed by Brawner, but the company also hired subcontractors. Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, said in a telephone interview that the bridge collapse was “a completely unexpected event that no one could have predicted.” He said the company had seven employees working on the bridge that night; one of them survived and six were still missing,” he said. Authorities described the eight victims as “workers.”

“The company is upset, the families are distressed, this is a terrible tragedy,” Pritzker said. “I don’t know what else I can say.”

Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday that sonar showed five vehicles in the Patapsco Riverbed: three passenger vehicles, a cement truck and an unknown vehicle. Other officials said later the same day that they were still trying to determine whether the vehicles plunged into the water and had no clear details about whether people other than those working on the bridge might have been in those vehicles.

A minute between alert and collapse

The Dali, with the flag of Singaporeleft the port of Baltimore at around 1 am and was heading to Colombo, in Sri Lankawhere it was scheduled to arrive on April 22, according to MarineTraffic, a maritime data platform.

Clay Diamond, the executive director of the American Pilots Association, said the ship experienced a “total blackout” at about 1:20 a.m., meaning it lost engine power and electrical power to its control and communications systems.

When Dali lost power, the pilot guiding the ship out of Baltimore Harbor ordered the rudder to turn sharply to the left and the left anchor to be lowered in an effort to slow the ship and keep it from swinging to the right, Diamond said. .

The ship did not regain power, but a backup diesel generator activated, restoring the electrical systems. Unable to slow the ship, the pilot, who has more than a decade of experience, radioed an emergency message to close the bridge.

At around 1:24 a.m., security camera video shows the ship’s lights going out, indicating a power problem. A minute later, they called again. Seconds later, thick black smoke could be seen coming from a chimney, and then the Dali appeared to begin to turn to the right.

At 1:27 am, the Dali’s lights flickered again, before returning seconds later. Soon after, radio traffic indicated efforts to clear the Key Bridge. The Dali reached the bridge at 1:28 am.

Moore said the ship was traveling at about eight knots — or 14 kilometers per hour — when it reached its wingspan. Diamond said the pilot on board gave a statement to Coast Guard and Board of Transportation investigators.

Synergy Marine Group, which owns and manages the ship, said in a news release that the Dali was under the control of two harbor pilots at the time of the sinking, as required by Maryland law. Synergy said all 22 sailors, who are Indian nationals, were unharmed. Authorities said they remained on the ship Tuesday.

Wallace said rescuers at the scene of the tragedy smelled diesel, but Synergy said there was no evidence the accident polluted the river. The company said it was cooperating with authorities in investigating the disaster.

Inspection records showed that the Dali has had problems before. A defect in the ship’s systems was discovered when the vessel was inspected in June last year, documents show. Inspectors at the port of San Antonio, Chile, discovered a problem categorized as related to “propulsion and auxiliary machinery,” according to an intergovernmental shipping regulator in the Asia-Pacific region.

The problem was not serious enough to detain the ship, records show. After a follow-up inspection conducted the same day, the Dali was found to have no outstanding issues, records show, indicating the fault had been resolved.

Synergy has been involved in at least three maritime tragedies since 2018 that led to the deaths of crew members, according to reports from transportation safety agencies and government statements.

The incidents involved an elevator malfunction that killed a technician in 2018; a police officer who fell overboard and died in 2019, who was not wearing a flotation device; and a tanker partially run by Synergy that collided with a dredger, killing two sailors.

Synergy, located in Singapore, controls a fleet of almost 400 ships and employs more than 14 thousand sailors, according to its website. The company’s office was in darkness when a reporter from the Washington Post visited the place on Tuesday.

Moore said the Key Bridge was up to code at the time of the collapse. The span is an important part of I-695, carrying north-south traffic around Baltimore and connecting Baltimore to Dundalk, Maryland. Maryland transportation officials said the loss of the bridge could cause transportation issues in the area in the near future.

The $60 million bridge was hailed as an engineering marvel when it was built in the 1970s. The American Society of Civil Engineers described it as one of the largest continuous truss bridges in the United States.

Ian Firth, a British structural engineer and bridge designer, noted that the bridge was erected at a time when ships were not as large as they are now and the flow of traffic was not as busy. Nowadays, structures are made with better protective measures, he said, although he noted that even a brand-new bridge would have “collapsed the same way” if it were struck by such a large vessel traveling at high speed.

Dan Frangopol, a professor of bridge and hazard engineering at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and president of the International Association for Bridge Maintenance and Safety, said the catastrophic failure was not surprising.

“If the pillar was destroyed as it was, the bridge has to collapse,” said Frangopol. “It is not possible to redistribute the loads.”