Baltimore bridge collapse

He had to have lost steerage to be that far off.
 
There's a video out there somewhere showing the boat clearly lose power twice before hitting the bridge. Imagine being the harbor pilot onboard that thing....ughh...

And what would you even do in that case with total power loss? I wonder if they can even drop anchors at that point.

As horrible as it is, I bet they have that port reopened in 2 weeks, max. I imagine the salvage equipment is already on the way...
 
What if it was the same pilot that ran aground coming out of the port about a year ago? Btw the pilot that hit the Florida bridge in zero visiblity weather with a known non working radar never lost his ticket.
 
Damn. Prayers for those unaccounted for. Thats the only entrance to the Baltimore docks/shipyards. Lots of people going to be out of works for months until they can clear the seaway..
 
Pirate Lady said:
With all respect to those lost lives in the crash, those boats kept in the harbor anchorages are going to have a bad summer. They wont be able to get down river past the site. Too much debris in the water. CG will close it off.
Oh and the port wont be able to get any shipping in or out until the debris is cleared, may be months.
Bad, really really bad.

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That really sucks. Feeling bad for you Baltimore folks. Prayers to the victims.
 
In WWII that mess would have been cleared to allow ship traffic in less than a week. The Golden Gate Bridge took 3 1/2 years to build. The Governor of MD needs to follow the lead of the Governor of Florida and tell the EPA and other agencies to stay the hell out of the way while they do what needs to be done to clear the wreckage and rebuild the bridge.
 
Local reports say all eight people who went in the water were part of a night pothole repair team. Six are still meeting. Can't imagine how terrifying it must have been for those folks.
 
I read a interesting, seemingly well-informed review of how the boat was being handled in the final minutes. The author of the opinion was claiming that the pilot/captain will have 100% of the blame in this scenario.

They stated that the pilot/cpt appear to have ordered full-astern when they regained power after the first outage, albeit briefly, which forced the bow to starboard, on course with the bridge support. They claim that had they gone half/full ahead instead, they would have shot the gap under the bridge, as this was the course they were already on.

Watching the video...seems plausible. Depending on which angle you watch, the boat certainly does seem to take aim squarely at the bridge support while it's billowing smoke following the first power loss.

It'll be a fascinating investigation to follow...
 
It's amazing what you can find online these days. You can watch the entire trip this boat took from it's dock to the bridge.

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Golfman25 said:
Why wasn't their anything around those pillars to protect them from impacts. They seemed kind of wimpy.
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There actually is, but they are water based pilings and from when the bridge was built 49yrs ago.
 
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