Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapses (Hit by a ship)

[cato potatoe]

What is the minimum draft required for these types of vessels?  From my experience, most river barges are 9 feet (lower Mississippi may be more) and lakers need 26 feet (Port of Chicago, anyway).  These large container vessels must require considerable depth.

Wikipedia lists the summer draft at 49 feet 4 inches.  It's a tight squeeze, and the corps of engineers keeps a long channel dredged down the Patapsco at considerable cost.

[Lando Lincoln]

Wikipedia lists the summer draft at 49 feet 4 inches.  It's a tight squeeze, and the corps of engineers keeps a long channel dredged down the Patapsco at considerable cost.

Thanks @cato potatoe.  I reckon I could have researched it. That is a lot of depth.  Quite an undertaking for the engineers and contractors.

[Elderberry]

Lara Logan: Bridge collapse called 'absolutely brilliant strategic attack'

WND By Joe Kovacs 3/26/2024

'They have figured out how to bring us down'

Investigative journalist Lara Logan posted an alarming message concerning the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on Tuesday, indicating multiple intelligence sources say the disaster was an "absolutely brilliant strategic attack" on U.S. critical infrastructure.

The structure was hit by a cargo vessel on the overnight hours, plunging at least eight people into the frigid water of the Patapsco River, six of whom are still missing.

"Multiple intel sources: Baltimore bridge collapse was an 'absolutely brilliant strategic attack' on US critical infrastructure - most likely cyber - & our intel agencies know it. In information warfare terms, they just divided the US along the Mason Dixon line exactly like the Civil War," Logan's warning began.

"Second busiest strategic roadway in the nation for hazardous material now down for 4-5 years - which is how long they say it will take to recover. Bridge was built specifically to move hazardous material - fuel, diesel, propane gas, nitrogen, highly flammable materials, chemicals and oversized cargo that cannot fit in the tunnels - that supply chain now crippled."

Make no mistake: this was an extraordinary attack in terms of planning, timing & execution.

The two critical components on that bridge are the two load-bearing pylons on each end, closest to the shore. They are bigger, thicker and deeper than anything else. These are the anchor points and they knew that hitting either one one of them would be a fatal wound to the integrity of the bridge.

Half a mile of bridge went in the river - likely you will have to build a new one. Also caused so much damage to the structural integrity of the bottom concrete part that you cannot see & won’t know until they take the wreckage apart. Structural destruction likely absolute.

Attack perfectly targeted.

More: https://www.wnd.com/2024/03/lara-logan-bridge-collapse-called-absolutely-brilliant-strategic-attack/

[Elderberry]

Baltimore Ship Lost Power and Sent Mayday Call Just Before Bridge Disaster

Yahoo News by Dan Ladden-Hall, Josh Fiallo 3/26/2024

Officials said Tuesday that the container ship that crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge issued a “mayday” just before the collision, allowing bridge operators to halt traffic and potentially save lives.

Six people remained missing Tuesday afternoon after the cargo ship Dali reported losing power and struck a pillar of the bridge, sending vehicles and a group of contractors plunging into the Patapsco River.

James Wallace, chief of the Baltimore City Fire Department, said two workers—who’d been fixing potholes on the bridge, which is used by 31,000 vehicles per day—were rescued from the frigid water. One avoided injury, and the other was hospitalized with serious injuries, he said.

That patient was discharged by Tuesday afternoon, the University of Maryland Medical Center said in a statement.

Authorities said several vehicles, including one the size of a tractor-trailer, were on the bridge when one of the structure’s columns was hit by the ship just before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said more vehicles didn’t suffer a similar fate largely because of that “mayday” call.

Video clips of the collapse show the steady flow of headlights disappear from the bridge just before impact.

“We’re thankful that between the ‘mayday’ and collapse that we had officials who were able to—to begin to stop the flow of traffic so more cars were not up on the bridge,” the governor said.

A Broadcastify recording of the transmissions captured the final seconds before impact, with authorities calmly communicating that all traffic needed to be stopped on the bridge.

More: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/fear-major-casualties-horror-bridge-081645348.html

[Timber Rattler]

Lara Logan: Bridge collapse called 'absolutely brilliant strategic attack'

Stupid conspiracy theory articles like this make Conservatives look like paranoid morons.  Lara Logan has really gone off the rails these past few years.

[mountaineer]

Biden: "The Federal government will pay for the ENTIRE cost of reconstructing that bridge"
Why isn't the insurance company of that vessel paying for any part of the damages?
Why would the Fed government foot the bill?

https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1772720651142324623

[Wingnut]

Stupid conspiracy theory articles like this make Conservatives look like paranoid morons.  Lara Logan has really gone off the rails these past few years.

She's a Nut.

[Wingnut]

Synergy Marine Group, the company that operates the vessel, is a huge fan of DEI, claiming that they “realize that the benefits of diversity are best achieved by fostering greater inclusion and belonging.

DEI will make people DIE.

[mountaineer]

She's a Nut.

She seems to have gone a bit Qrazy.

[bigheadfred]

In a news conference on Tuesday, President Joe Biden pledged that the federal government would pay for the entire cost of reconstructing the bridge. This move is not unprecedented. According to the CRS, the federal government usually takes on 90% of the cost for interstate highways like the Francis Scott Key Bridge, but the sheer size of the project may require additional mechanisms like new federal legislation. Adjusted for inflation, the bridge cost $735 million to build in the 1970s, dwarfing the congressional allocation of $100 million a year for the Federal Highway Administration's disaster relief fund.

https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2024/03/26/key-bridge-collapse-maryland-pay-new.html#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20CRS%2C%20the%20federal%20government%20usually,may%20require%20additional%20mechanisms%20like%20new%20federal%20legislation.

[rangerrebew]

AMERICAN NEWS Mar 26, 2024
REVEALED: Ship that struck Baltimore bridge was involved in 2016 crash, had 'deficiencies'
The ship was last inspected by crews in New York City on September 9, 2023. At that time, no issues were reported.
 
 
Jarryd Jaeger
Vancouver, BC
Mar 26, 2024
 

It has been revealed that the cargo ship that crashed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning, the Dali, had been involved in an accident in 2016, and that inspections as recent as last year came back showing "deficiencies."


While the Dali sustained damage as a result of the impact, it remained afloat. The bridge, on the other hand, crumbled into the Patapsco River, bringing vehicles and people with it. Search and rescue operations were still underway late into the day, though only two people were recovered, both directly after the crash. One was in critical condition while the other declined medical services.


According to USA Today, as the Dali was leaving the port of Antwerp in Belgium in 2016, it struck a stone loading pier and suffered damage to its stern. Following an investigation, it was determined that a mistake made by the master pilot had led to the incident.

https://thepostmillennial.com/revealed-ship-that-struck-baltimore-bridge-was-involved-in-2016-crash-had-deficiencies?utm_campaign=64487#google_vignette

[DCPatriot]

She seems to have gone a bit Qrazy.

 

Fact is, she's an award-winning journalist with a plethora of sources in the Intelligence Community.

Fact is, Baltimore is no longer a port...for the next 5 years they are simply a Democrat Slum.

12% of every dollar in revenue the city earns is due to the Harbor.  14K jobs disappeared yesterday morning.

The cruise ship which left Baltimore the other day had to go to Norfolk, Virginia where passengers were given bus tickets to return to Baltimore to pick up their vehicles.

Lara Logan is on to something...just like the forest fires all didn't start with lightening strikes but from crazy bastards with matches.

[catfish1957]

Read that Biden is making taxpayers fund the entire new bridge.  Even without the insurance settlement?  Or without muni-bonds?, or other means.

I smell something fishy....  Follow the money.

[DCPatriot]

Read that Biden is making taxpayers fund the entire new bridge.  Even without the insurance settlement?  Or without muni-bonds?, or other means.

I smell something fishy....  Follow the money.

Good thing it's Maryland and not Ohio, Michigan or Florida.  2+2=4

[DefiantMassRINO]

This falls into the $h!t h@ppens pile.

Maybe next time they'll build a tunnel or use tugboats to get them under the replacement bridge.

Current infrastructure, built decades ago, didn't anticipate the increase in size and tonnage of modern container ships.

The newer ships are piled so high with containers, strong winds can divert their course (like the Suez Canal containership oopsie).

[mystery-ak]

Truck recovered from water where Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed: report

Workers recovered a truck from the site of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in the Patapsco River, but at least one vehicle remains hanging from metal debris, according to the Associated Press.

The outlet cited a law enforcement official who had knowledge of a Homeland Security memo detailing the recovery.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Wednesday praised divers who have spent hours in frigid water.

“They are down there in darkness where they can literally see about a foot in front of them,” he said. “They are trying to navigate mangled metal and they’re also in a place it is now presumed that people have lost their lives, so the work of these first responders, the work of these divers, I cannot stress enough how remarkable these individuals are.”

A search is ongoing for the six construction workers who are presumed dead following the bridge collapse.

One of the missing Brawner Builders employees has been identified by Telemundo Washington D.C. as 49-year-old Miguel Luna of El Salvador, whose relatives say has six children. Two Guatemalans aged 26 and 35 are also unaccounted for, according to the country’s foreign ministry, and a colleague has told The Associated Press that he was informed the six were sitting in their trucks during a break at the time of the disaster.

Fox News Digital's Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted by Chris Pandolfo

[PeteS in CA]

... it was determined that a mistake made by the master pilot had led to the incident.

The "master pilot" would have been supplied by the Antwerp port facility.

A more relevant/pertinent avenue of investigation would be the cause of the power failure, whether there was any redundancy in the ship's design to mitigate the effects of a power failure, relevant crew training, and whether the ship's power system had been properly maintained.

[rustynail]

Interesting

https://twitter.com/charlesbonnerjr/status/1772792317667103036

[Cyber Liberty]

 

Fact is, she's an award-winning journalist with a plethora of sources in the Intelligence Community.

Fact is, Baltimore is no longer a port...for the next 5 years they are simply a Democrat Slum.

12% of every dollar in revenue the city earns is due to the Harbor.  14K jobs disappeared yesterday morning.

The cruise ship which left Baltimore the other day had to go to Norfolk, Virginia where passengers were given bus tickets to return to Baltimore to pick up their vehicles.

Lara Logan is on to something...just like the forest fires all didn't start with lightening strikes but from crazy bastards with matches.

I doubt the ports will stay closed that long.  But the bridge will probably take longer that 5 years, hamstrung the whole way by the worst the three-letter agencies will dish out.  The Environmental Impact paperwork will only be the beginning of bureaucratic SNAFUs.

[mystery-ak]

https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1773026672473698390

[Mod2]

Topics merged

[mountaineer]

Daniel Horowitz
@RMConservative
Do we know anything more about how the ship lost power and the nature of the pilots, especially after this ship was involved in an accident in 2016?  Sparse reporting for something of this magnitude
8:06 AM · Mar 27, 2024

[Timber Rattler]

Just saw this on Facebook from Maersk's chief engineer:

[Lando Lincoln]

Just saw this on Facebook from Maersk's chief engineer:

Interesting - and it makes sense. I also read somewhere that the vessel dropped its starboard anchor.  It will be interesting to learn the timeline of events when it is finally released.

[mystery-ak]

Dali cargo ship suffered 'severe electrical problem' while docked in Baltimore days prior to bridge collapse crash that saw it suffer 'total power failure, loss of engine failure', port worker says

    Julie Mitchell, co-administrator of Container Royalty, told CNN the ship was anchored at the port for at least 48 hours prior to the deadly crash
    Mitchell explained that refrigerated boxes tripped breakers on board the ship on several occasions, and mechanics had been trying to fix the issue
    The 1.6-mile Key Bridge partially collapsed after the cargo shipping container vessel crashed into one of its support structures just before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday

By Laura Parnaby For Dailymail.Com

Published: 15:07 EDT, 27 March 2024 | Updated: 16:38 EDT, 27 March 2024

The Dali cargo ship which smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge suffered a 'severe electrical problem' while docked in Baltimore days before, according to a port worker.

Julie Mitchell, co-administrator of Container Royalty, a company which tracks cargo, told CNN the ship was anchored at the port for at least 48 hours prior to the deadly crash.

Following the devastation, she said: 'And those two days, they were having serious power outages… they had a severe electrical problem. It was total power failure, loss of engine power, everything.'

Mitchell explained that refrigerated boxes tripped breakers on board the ship on several occasions, and mechanics had been trying to fix the issue.

She said she didn't know whether the problem had been fixed when the ship set off.

more
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13246079/Dali-cargo-ship-suffered-severe-electrical-problem-docked-Baltimore-days-prior-bridge-collapse-crash-saw-suffer-total-power-failure-loss-engine-failure-port-worker-says.html