U.S. News: Ship That Hit Baltimore Bridge Lost Power Before Leaving Port

"The Dali containership lost power several times in the hours before it crashed into and caused the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.

The ship lost electricity before and after leaving the Port of Baltimore, the NTSB concluded in a preliminary report into the causes of the March disaster released Tuesday.

The first blackout in port occurred after a crew member mistakenly closed an engine exhaust damper, the report said, and a second outage was related to insufficient fuel pressure for a generator. After leaving port, the ship again lost power after two breakers opened unexpectedly, followed by yet another blackout, the report said.

The findings provide the most detailed account to date of what occurred before the crash that destroyed the bridge, killing six road crew workers and largely shutting down the busy Port of Baltimore.

The safety board's early findings didn't list a probable cause for the accident. That will be part of its final report, which can take up to two years.

The day before the March 26 collision, the Singapore-flagged Dali lost power while still docked in Baltimore, the report said. The ship, laden with nearly 4,700 shipping containers, was preparing for a 27-day journey to Sri Lanka.

The first blackout occurred about 10 hours before the ship's departure, the report said. A crew member mistakenly closed an in-line engine exhaust damper while working on the diesel engine exhaust scrubber system, the report said. That effectively prevented exhaust gas from traveling up its stack and out of the vessel, causing the engine to stall.

The crew was able to restore power, but insufficient fuel pressure to a generator caused a second in-port outage.

Just after midnight on March 26, an Association of Maryland Pilots senior pilot and an apprentice pilot boarded the Dali, which was about to leave Seagirt Marine Terminal. The report said the senior pilot asked about the vessel's condition, and the captain said the ship was in good working order.

By around 1:25, the Dali was six-tenths of a mile from the Key Bridge when electrical breakers that feed most of the vessel's equipment and lighting unexpectedly tripped, the report said. The result was a blackout to all shipboard lighting and most equipment.

The vessel lost steering and propulsion. The crew was able to restore electrical power, but yet another blackout followed -- with the ship just two-tenths of a mile from the bridge.

The Dali struck one of the Key Bridge's support piers around 1:30 a.m. A large section of the 1.6-mile span, which opened in 1977 and was part of the Interstate 695 beltway that rings Baltimore, crumpled into the Patapsco River.

Though an alert from ship personnel enabled Maryland authorities to stop cars from crossing the bridge just before the collision, eight workers who were repairing potholes on the bridge fell into the water. Two were rescued.

While the report didn't pin blame on the crew, it pointed to a key maintenance error that has put them in the spotlight.

The report also documented repeated efforts by crew members to restore operations on the stricken ship. Moments before the Dali struck the bridge, it said, the crew managed to get power back on but they weren't able to regain propulsion.

The 21-member crew, most from India, has remained on the Dali since the collapse, with tons of steel and pavement from the bridge resting on the ship's bow. On Monday, a controlled detonation blasted a section of the span, disconnecting the ship from the wreckage.

The Dali was built in 2015 by South Korea's HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, one of the world's biggest yards. The vessel is owned by Grace Ocean Private, and was being operated by Synergy Marine Group. Both are based in Singapore.

The Dali used three different grades of fuel for its main engine and electrical generators, and received replenished supplies of all three on March 19 in Newark, N.J., after a trip from Sri Lanka, the report found.

The ship's owner took samples of one of the fuels burned at the time of the collision and submitted it for independent testing on March 28, which found no quality problems, the report said. Additional fuel samples were taken on April 11, and independent testing also found no issues.

Fuel contamination was an early focus of investigators, The Wall Street Journal previously reported." [1]

1.  U.S. News: Ship That Hit Baltimore Bridge Lost Power Before Leaving Port. Calvert, Scott; Paris, Costas; Berger, Paul.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 15 May 2024: A.3.