Baltimore bridge collapse

[JayhawkCurtis]

Wow! Just WOW!
Done with this thread.
View attachment 161187

A joke you can not take, eh?

 

[OllieC]

Local news this morning says the mayday was for loss of steering. Police radio recordings now out say the same thing. I believe there are traffic control lights that were able to be used to stop traffic quickly. The police recordings mention warning the work crew but there was only about one minute from when the voice alert started until the bridge collapse.

Just heard that as well.

 

[PlayDate]

Okay......pop quiz.

You are on your boat and your engine quits. If you know what caused it.....you fix it and are back in business in 60 seconds.

If you don't know what caused it.........you start wondering if your Boat US and SeaTow memberships are current.


The MV Dali lost two AC generators and their main propulsion engine at the same time. They were back up and running in 60 seconds.


Does this really need to be a conspiracy?


Of course the crew knows exactly what went wrong. They aren't being let off the boat because the NTSB wants to control the narrative. I believe it is fuel system related but it is not contaminated fuel. Why? When you have contaminated diesel nothing restarts in 60 seconds. To kill a diesel engine (three of them) you have to shut off the fuel.

Isn't it more likely that the new guy Amit in the Engine Room hit the wrong button?

 

[ttmott]

Just a bit more information on the MV Dali:


Dali is propelled by a single low-speed two-stroke crosshead diesel engine coupled to a fixed-pitch propeller. Her main engine, a 9-cylinder MAN-B&W 9S90ME-C9.2[11] unit manufactured by Hyundai Heavy Industries under license, is rated 41,480 kW (55,630 hp) at 82.5 rpm.[2] Her service speed is 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph).[5] For maneuvering in ports, Dali has a single 3,000 kW (4,000 hp) bow thruster. Electricity is generated by two 3,840 kW (5,150 hp) and two 4,400 kW (5,900 hp) auxiliary diesel generators.


This probably raises a few more questions. If they lost electrical power.....apparently at least one of the generators shut down. Losing the electrical power AND propulsion is really unusual. Usually the generator and propulsion have different fuel tanks and filter systems. It is almost as if the fuel valves were closed.

The propulsion engine require the generators. They will not run without aux electrical power.
Engine cooling, Lube oil, centrifuges, filters, electronics and every pump runs on the Aux generators.
There are no "alternators" on the behemoth......

So if they had a catastrophic loss of electrical power the boat would shut down - game over.

 

[PlayDate]

The engines require the generators. They will not run without aux electrical power.
Engine cooling, Lube oil, centrifuges, filters, electronics and every pump runs on the Aux generators.
There are no "alternators" on the behemoths......

So if they had a catastrophic loss of electrical power the boat would shut down - game over.

Tom,

Just think about it. This has two AC generators, two Auxiliary generators and a main propulsion diesel. For everything to go offline and then be restarted in 60 seconds means they knew what the issue was.

If they didn't ......they would have taken a lot longer than 60 seconds to spin everything back up.

 

[ttmott]

Tom,

Just think about it. This has two AC generators, two Auxiliary generators and a main propulsion diesel. For everything to go offline and then be restarted in 60 seconds means they knew what the issue was.

If they didn't ......they would have taken a lot longer than 60 seconds to spin everything back up.

Yea - that's why I said "catastrophic". There are still single point failures. There are controls that are manual and automatic to switch power over and around the gensets. If something failed on a switching event how much time would it take for the crew to understand and fix?? Meanwhile the boat goes dark.

 

[Stee6043]

Occam's razor:

I would say "too soon" but this thread is already starting to circle the bowl a bit...

 

[PlayDate]

Yea - that's why I said "catastrophic". There are still single point failures. There are controls that are manual and automatic to switch power over and around the gensets. If something failed on a switching event how much time would it take for the crew to understand and fix?? Meanwhile the boat goes dark.

BTW did I read that right the main propulsion system generates 55,000+HP at 82.5 rpm?

 

[ttmott]

BTW did I read that right the main propulsion system generates 55,000+HP at 82.5 rpm?

The only reason I know about this is my buddy works for GE on the control systems on these ships. I'm always picking his brain on the azipod technology which is what he does.

 

[KrazyKarl]

Why didn't they use tugs to escort the ship out to open seas?
It would have prevented this.

 

[wakeup 19]

Why didn't they use tugs to escort the ship out to open seas?
It would have prevented this.

thats what I was thinking, I'm in Boston and never see anything without at least 3 tugs on it.

 

[Skybolt]

Why didn't they use tugs to escort the ship out to open seas?
It would have prevented this.

Baltimore only uses tugs for docking and un-docking for what ever reason. That harbor is quite wide open.

 

[alnav]

Why didn't they use tugs to escort the ship out to open seas?
It would have prevented this.

Simply because tugs aren't required in Baltimore. I suspect that will change in many places. There have been initiatives to make tugs mandatory but they were fought tooth and nail by the shipping companies. Lots of ports throughout the world have had mandatory tug rules based on size for many years.

 

[PlayDate]

Keep in mind that the Bridge has stood for 50 years and at least 100,000 cargo ships have passed under it without a problem. It was fate. If it happened two minutes sooner .....they could have stopped. Two minutes later and they would have cleared the Bridge.

Saying they need tugs to clear the bridge will only make the tug guys happy......everyone else gets to pay for it.

 

[highslice]

Keep in mind that the Bridge has stood for 50 years and at least 100,000 cargo ships have passed under it without a problem. It was fate. If it happened two minutes sooner .....they could have stopped. Two minutes later and they would have cleared the Bridge.

Saying they need tugs to clear the bridge will only make the tug guys happy......everyone else gets to pay for it.

Well, as it turns out, everyone else is going to get to pay for it.

 

[KrazyKarl]

Baltimore only uses tugs for docking and un-docking for what ever reason. That harbor is quite wide open.

But it looks like it not wide open enough. It also sounds like this ship has had many problems before this happened.

 

[Njlarry]

These ships are HUGE! The entire bay is small compared to their size. Out at sea is different but Ive seen them at a distance and aint nothing gonna stop them. Bridges, barges, other ships, docks, boats, lpg terminals, lighthouses wont even be felt as they are plowed under. The port of baltimore made a large investment to welcome those ships, the owners can cover the tugs. Two catastropies in two years. Another is a matter of time. It was lucky the larger Annapolis bridges were not taken out. I doubt their wood pilings would save them or the hunders of cars on them 24 7.

 

[km1125]

Found this video which synchs up the video with the MarineTraffic track and provides some additional conjecture including about the backing bell. But, it also raises the notion that the power loss may have frozen the rudder.

At 6:03 in that video, you can see two vehicles on the bridge, travelling westbound (right to left). They are right past the bridge support that the ship hit. At about the same time, the ship lurches to port and the lights from the two vehicles disappear, as if they might have been jostled and not pointing the same way anymore. It isn't until 6:12 in the video that you see the bow splash and the piling start falling, then the bridge right after.

Either those two cars are at the bottom of the bay, or they JUST made it off that span before the bridge dropped.

EDIT: Was able to review the ORIGINAL footage that was used to make the video listed above. (here:

). It seems like the video with the analysis is missing about 32 seconds, and the cut happens right when those two vehicles disappeared. On the original video you can see them complete their transit of the bridge off the left side of the screen (at about 4:58 in the original video). When I went back and reviewed the "analysis" video, he originally says it's "real time" but then later says he's speeding it up, so the latter parts were time-lapse causing the loss of frames. That edit also explains the boat "lurching" as that's not apparent when you look at the original "real-time" video.

 

[km1125]

These ships are HUGE! The entire bay is small compared to their size. Out at sea is different but Ive seen them at a distance and aint nothing gonna stop them. Bridges, barges, other ships, docks, boats, lpg terminals, lighthouses wont even be felt as they are plowed under. The port of baltimore made a large investment to welcome those ships, the owners can cover the tugs. Two catastropies in two years. Another is a matter of time. It was lucky the larger Annapolis bridges were not taken out. I doubt their wood pilings would save them or the hunders of cars on them 24 7.

The EVERGIVEN is a much larger ship and was going faster than this one when it was stopped dead by ~75 ft of sand.

 

[Gofirstclass]

This sad tale gets even more so. The ship that struck the bridge was carrying hundreds of tons of hazardous materials.

MSN

www.msn.com