The Baltimore Bridge has been hit by a container ship and has collapsed.
It is a !.6 mile long 4 lane bridge. There were vehicles and 20 workers on the bridge, but not rush hour as it was about 1 in the morning.
Awful.
Bloody sat navs eh?
Where was his bridge height map ffs.
Not funny guy, looking at the strong possibility here that multiple deaths will soon be confirmedā¦
Thereāll no doubt be a pilot and captain looking for a job.
Any ship in port will be trapped there, no ships will be able to enter the port. That will have massive direct and indirect impact on local workers.
Nothing will be entering or leaving, until the bridge wreckage can be removed.
Hopefully, happening at sparrowās, there are no fatalities.
Itās going to be an expensive, insurance claim.
@Winseerā¦ Get off yer high ā ā ā ā ā ā horseā¦āāguyāā
I will decide what I think is funny mate.
2 wordsā¦ .(clue second word is off)
Never heard of dark humour, Windseer?
Robroy, I think the expression youāre looking for is āTwo words, three effs.ā
Well the Captain is always the ultimate person responsible for his ship and, in my experience, is always on the bridge when a Pilot is in control, though rarely I would think overrules him.
But unless things have changed drastically since my time at sea, 60 odd years ago, there is a lowly crewman actually on the wheel. So any one of those 3 could have made a mistake or, not beyond the bounds of possibility, deliberately diverted for some unspeakable reason.
Ships as large as this do turn very slowly so a deliberate action is highly unlikely. I am not familiar with this port so donāt know if there were tugs invloved to add to the mix.
But a very big deal to be sorted out later once the more immediate task of rescue is completed.
Just got this from an American driversā site, thankfully it was 1am so not much traffic but I did see a couple of artic drivers having a lucky escape by passing the point of impact just before the collision.
One report says two pilots and the captain on the bridge.
No sign of tugs (doesnāt mean none though) on the videos/pictures.
Only 2mph winds now, and no big waves so guessing no strong winds then either.
-1 air temp and 10deg C water temp. Not survivable for long.
The ship is the Dali.
300m long, 48m beam. 95,000 tons gross. Built 2015.
Sudden steering/rudder failure. ? Those ships canāt stop quickly.
Just imagine the guy who was steering the ship when he heard the tremendous bang and looked out to see a effin great bridge just collapsing around him.
Youāve got to feel a bit for him.
Iāve always been a āglass half fullā type of guy, sure itās bad enough, but Iād be thinking how much worse it could have been,.especially if it had been a busier period, like a ārush hourā.
A Singapore-based shipping expert who has sailed cargo ships through Baltimoreās port many times has been speaking with the BBC.
āThe vessel had just departed from berth and made a turn before hitting the bridgeā.
Having seen the footage, he has said there were a few possible causes:
- Main engine failure
- Steering failure
- Generator blackout
- Possibility of pilot/human error
āItās an unusual turn. Before a ship departs, we are supposed to carry out all the checks on all elements of the vessel before it departs. Itās part of the departure checklist. So, if everything was done, something was obviously overlooked,ā he says, speaking on the basis of anonymity.
āThese ships are so huge that even if the speed is slow, the momentum would be huge,ā he adds.
āNo indication this was terrorismā - fire chief
āThere is absolutely no indication this is terrorism,ā the fire chief says, on the ship crashing into the bridge in Baltimore.
He adds that there is no indication this was intentional.
All above from the BBC link already posted.
So far 2 recovered from water. Search and rescue continuing.
TruckNet CSI springs into actionā¦
Spardo
Assuming it wasnāt a height v bridge issue Insufficient steerage way v an ebb tide ?.
A video shows the shipās navigation lights switch off twice just before the collision.A few sections of the bridge sections collapsed with 2 sections resting on the shipās bow.Thatās going to be a hell of a job to clear up.It happened about 0130 so the 6 lane road was not as busy as it could have been.There were 2 pilots and the shipās master in the wheelhouse.At first sight it would appear to be technical failure but my qualifications to judge will be equal to most others on this forum.
From BBC R4 news within the past hour: Apparently the ship lost power, witnesses have said its lights all went out together, the skipper got off a Mayday call which allowed those on land to stop traffic going onto the bridge, otherwise there would have been a far larger number of casualties.
Watch the video in the article, and youāll notice that the lights donāt go out ruling out #3 and the tide/current was running towards the camera, ruling out a strong drift to one side at the critical moment (ruling out 2) and was already on course to pass under the centre of the bridge, so begs the question āWhy steer at all?ā
If the engine had failed, then the ship would have been carried on the current (towards the camera) or with the tide (towards or receding from the camera)
With all the other āInfrastructure disastersā that have been going on around the USA since the lockdown - I can only say that
it is unlikely to be a coincidence, especially when the authorities IMMEDIATELY rule out āTerrorist Actionā despite having not investigated to rule any such thing out at presentā¦
Plenty of video footage embedded in articleā¦
Mods: Why not bring back embedded video here so we donāt have to link an entire article from outside when posting?
Nevermind Trucknet CSI-Carryfast and Winseer have got it covered!
Yepā¦
Carryfast is boking a flight as we speak, to go out there to be a consultant.
And Winseer is hiding in his underneath the stairs cupboardā¦cos he thinks heāll get the blame.
So youāre already thinking it is a cover up for summat, and you think the US would want to deny a terrorist attack, despite the political capital they could make from that?
Seriously?
And where are the āvictoriousā terrorists? Be they IS/Al-Queda/Hamas/Hezbollah/Mossad/ The whole state of Iran/ or Uncle Tom KKK Cobbly and all, the Trump-Supporting-Government-hating-'dumb-Redneck-F-tards , amongst all of this?
Conspicuous by their absence, yet we all know these characters are all desperate to claim āvictory over the infidelā, why would they not be crowing and firing AK47s (or Colt assault rifles for their domestic knobbos) into the air on internet vids?
So no, not a terrorist attack.
What āVictorious Terroristsā like Proxy Blame Takers last week in the Russian Massacre?
These days - you donāt take āinformationā at face value any longer.
If the āopticā of mainstream media leads people to look one way, then you really should be looking at what youāre being distracted from elsewhereā¦
Putin has seen right through it, but thought wrongly that the US Proxies āIsisā dare not attack Russia in plain sight, especially after the USA announced that this attack was inbound beforehandā¦
Isis were necessary for the Russian attack because the West and NATO doesnāt target civiliansā¦
Likewise, around the US the attacks are against mainstream infrastructure, especially in working class areas that donāt cause collateral damage to rich peopleās real estate, nor their high paying jobs they might hold.
The lead-up to this bridge collapse is very suspicious to say the least, including as to why the vessel veered INTO the Key post that the bridge could not stand if damagedā¦ There was zero damage redundancy the article saidā¦
On top of the bridge, one could compare the work going on to āroutine overnight maintenenceā like one might see on the Dartford Crossing, with 3 lanes out of 4 closed down for the works going onā¦
At least one āSemi Truckā (C+E Artic to us Brits) went into the river, presumably as part of the āworks teamā upon the bridge prior to the collapse.
The lights are seen in some clips flicking on and off, possibly as a āwarning of imminent collisionā to those on the bridgeā¦
So much for there being a āPower Failureā prior to the veer off-courseā¦
ā¦And what was all that black smoke coming out of the funnel about hmm?
No, itās not a āTerrorist Attackā then.
I suggest instead it might be a 5th Columnist act of sabotage, which has more serious implications for the US establishment IF they are indeed covering this up to be the caseā¦
THAT is the āConspiracyā here, not the actual damage to the bridge on this occasion.
The Cover Up.