Here’s Everything We Know About The Container Ship Crash That Destroyed The Francis Scott Key Bridge In Baltimore

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As you have no doubt seen, the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore collapsed when the container ship DALI (IMO 9697428) crashed into one of its supporting pylons at a speed of about eight knots, or 9 mph. The vessel had notified port authorities that the ship had lost power before the collision, which gave authorities a chance to stop traffic on the bridge. There were construction workers repairing potholes on the bridge; two were rescued, and six are still missing. There’s still so much we don’t know about what happened, so let’s take a moment to try and run down what we do know.

The ship itself was sailing under the Singapore flag and was en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka. Really, the DALI had only just started its voyage, leaving dock at about 12:23 am and hitting the bridge barely a half hour into the journey. The ship, much like the legendary coupé known as the Scoupe, was built by Hyundai, specifically Hyundai Heavy Industries, back in 2015.

Here’s the path taken by the DALI, according to Marinetraffic.com:

Dali Path

As you can see, it’s a pretty simple J-shaped path, though you can note a deviation from its course near the top of the J (the bottom of the image), where the 985-foot-long ship veered into a path that would take it right smack into the bridge support. Radio traffic from the Maryland Transportation Authority at the time of the event gives a sense of what was happening:

On that recording you can hear the controllers say

“Hold all traffic on the Key Bridge; there’s a ship approaching that just lost their steering, so until we get that under control we need to stop all traffic,”

…which was undoubtedly a call that saved lives.

Videos seem to show the ship losing power right before the impact, then power coming back, with an accompanying burst of diesel exhaust, right before impact. Here’s a video, with commentary from a shipping YouTube channel, that shows the event:

While we don’t know yet what happened, things do seem to be pointing to some sort of mechanical issue that caused a power loss on the ship, which caused the ship to be out of control, since the rudder requires power to operate. It’s worth remembering that a 95,000 ton container ship is not a car; it can’t just stop, it’s floating, it has a colossal amount of mass and momentum, and it appears that efforts were being taken to slow or adjust the ship’s heading, including dropping one of the anchors.

Outlets like Sky news have talked to experts like David McFarlane, director of Maritime Risk and Safety Consultants Ltd, who feel the most likely culprit is steering system failure:

“The most likely cause of this is a failure in machinery or steering gear, but we just won’t know until the authorities have been on board. And even then, they’re unlikely to say what’s been going on for some considerable time.”

What’s confusing is that according to safety studies of power failures on ships conducted by the Safety Investigation Authority of Finland, there should be redundant and separate backup steering systems:

Ships have own electrical networks, production, distribution and connected consumers of electricity. The ship’s electrical network enables the ship to operate as an independent entity at sea and often also in port. The latter if the ship is not connected to shore power to ensure availability of electricity onboard.
A vessel’s electrical network can be implemented in a variety of ways. The intended use of the vessel, its type, as well as specific features in the vessel design determine how the electric network is implemented. In the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) it is required,that on vessels in international traffic, electricity can be produced by two independent sources, both of which alone has the capacity to produce electrical power enough to maintain the ship’s seaworthiness. The power needed onboard is produced by the ship’s own generators. They are rotating at constant speed, usually powered by diesel engines. From the diesel generators, electricity is transferred to the main electrical grid, which in turn distributes electricity to the consumer points. There can be one or more diesel-powered generators on a ship. The number and size of generators will depend on the ship’s need for electrical power.

Steering System
It must be possible to maintain the ship’s manoeuvrability when the propulsion engine is running and even after it has stopped e.g. due to a hardware failure. Because of this, components in the ship’s steering system, e.g. equipment conveying steering commands and units producing power for steering, e.g. hydraulic pumps, are among the most important elements of the ship’s electrical network. Ships must be fitted with a main steering system and an auxiliary steering system that can be taken into use quickly. The main steering gear and the auxiliary steering gear must be constructed and installed so that a failure in one system does not affect the performance of the other. 6 Power units in the steering gear, such as electrically operated hydraulic pumps, must start automatically after a power failure.It must also be possible to take them in use from the navigating bridge. Failure of a power unit, or automatic startup failure, can result in decreased or loss of power for turning the rudder.Disturbances in the power units ofthe steering gear must activate an alarm on the navigating bridge.

So, what happened that redundant systems were unable to kick in?

A massive container ship’s rudder system is complex and massive, and while we don’t know exactly how the one on this ship works, you can see an example steering gear in the video below:

Notably for our site, the Port of Baltimore is America’s biggest automotive port. Their website does have at least one glaring factual error on it – they say “Since becoming the port​ of entry for the first Volkswagen Beetle in 1963″ which is just not true – the first Beetles came to America in 1949 – the rest seems accurate. Baltimore is the port of entry for Volvo, Jaguar/Land Rover, Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen, and other carmakers, so if the port is shut down, this could be a very big deal for getting new cars – especially European cars – into America.

I reached out to Susan Seranno, who is in charge of automotive cargo for the port. She wasn’t really authorized to say much, but did tell me this:

“Ship traffic has been suspended until further notice, but the port is still operating.”

That’s not a lot to go on, but I suppose it’s better than the port not operating.

Maersk is the Danish shipping colossus that had its cargo on the vessel, and issued a statement on their website:

“In the early hours of 26 March 2024, a vessel collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, resulting in damage to the structure. Information on the situation remains pending and we remain in close contact with officials in the area.

“We can confirm that the container vessel ’DALI,’  is owned by Grace Ocean, and operated by Synergy Group. It is time chartered by Maersk and is carrying Maersk customers’ cargo. No Maersk crew and personnel were onboard the vessel.

“Due to the damage to the bridge and resulting debris, it will not be possible to reach the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore for the time being. In line with this, we are omitting Baltimore on all our services for the foreseeable future, until it is deemed safe for passage through this area.

“For cargo already on water, we will omit the port, and will discharge cargo set for Baltimore, in nearby ports. From these ports, it will be possible to utilise landside transportation to reach final destination instead. Your local Maersk representative can assist in booking this.

“Please note that for cargo set to discharge in Baltimore, delays may occur, as they will need to discharge in other ports. We are keeping a close eye on the safety situation in the area and continuing to assess the viability of transportation through the area. We will inform you of any changes that may impact your cargo.

“We are deeply concerned by this incident and are closely monitoring the situation. We understand the potential impact this may have on your logistics operation, and will communicate to our customers once we have more details from authorities. Our teams are on hand to support with your planning, should you need any assistance.”

Despite everyone on the internet suddenly becoming an expert in bridge design, ports, maritime law, shipping, and marine engineering, we don’t yet have the full story about what happened, but will update as we know more. Sadly, I also think it’s worth mentioning that there is zero evidence so far that this was in any way intentional, and the conspiracy theories you may be seeing online have no basis in any factual reality, at least based on what we know currently.

 

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118 thoughts on “Here’s Everything We Know About The Container Ship Crash That Destroyed The Francis Scott Key Bridge In Baltimore”

  1. In the early hours of 26 March 2024, a vessel collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, resulting in damage to the structure. Information on the situation remains pending and we remain in close contact with officials in the area.

    “Resulting in damage to the structure” is quite an undersell. Holy cow.

    2. I live rather close to this, and we got a text alert yesterday morning from our work informing us that the “Key bridge would be closed until further notice.”

      Uh, yeah.

  2. Well, I’m not full expert, but I’ve done enough in design of bridges to know what they need to be designed to in my country to deal with impact loads.

    So this impact on the low end appears to be some stupid number like 1650mt of force if I’ve managed my rough calc right.

    The last bridge I did needed 10mt of capacity. Based on modern design, flood loads against an uncontrolled boat on a side load, and much much smaller boats in general.

    I’m really not sure anyone could feasibly build a foundation capable of dealing with that level of horizontal force as the bridge still function. And I’d definitely argue when it was built there was no expectations that ships would reach the size they are now.

    End of the day, it’s all very sad. I’m sure everyone did the best they could in the 8mins or so they had, but as is the world we live in, someone likely has to get the blame. There will be some hard lessons like Australia experienced in the 70s, and you’ve just got to cop the costs and reduced productivity as a result.

    At best it will be minimum 4 years before the crossing is restored. And I’d say there will be fluffing about trying to get the existing stuff to work again, will ultimately be deemed unsafe or not up to a new standard, and a full new better bridge will be built, and the budget will be blown, as design will be rushed through.

      1. Yes, this is a very good point. Nothing I’ve ever done in a river that can handle boats bigger than a tinny has had a decent pilecap/dolphin. But honestly, I think a lot of it is age of the structure and design standards of the time, and, you’re not managing this sort of load, the bridge just might not have fallen in 30 seconds.

        That said, flooding dolphins often go under, so bridge structure above that to a set flood level needs to be considered for impact loads still. We’re even taking in to account water level rise with global warming where tidal.

        Side note, even in a temporary works arrangement we’d be working to 80-100% of final impact load requirements. And we’ve needed to consider how to deal with the structure if it does need to be removed for whatever reason. Stuff I can imagine wasn’t high on the list 50+ years ago.

    2. Well, I’m not full expert, but I’ve done enough in design of bridges to know what they need to be designed to in my country to deal with impact loads.

      I’d say that statement alone makes you at least 1000x more qualified to comment than most almost all of the people bleating about “how fast it collapsed” or “no boat could have done that”…

  3. > there is zero evidence so far that this was in any way intentional, and the conspiracy theories you may be seeing online have no basis in any factual reality,

    Since when do we care about facts?

  4. Despite everyone on the internet suddenly becoming an expert in bridge design, ports, maritime law, shipping, and marine engineering: Not to mention all the conspiracy theorists and closest racial anthropologists

    Also, I can already hear the jokes about a Hyundai suddenly losing engine power bouncing around my skull.

  5. “…gave authorities a chance to stop traffic on the bridge.”

    Did they? The videos of it clearly show traffic on the bridge right up until the collapse, and what I was reading earlier seemed to say that some of the missing persons were motorists who had been driving on the bridge. Did they just not close traffic quite early enough?

      1. Long*ish*. A mile and a half, which only takes 2-3 minutes to traverse. Which is why I asked if they just didn’t close it quite soon enough.

        1. If you listen to the audio and watch the video, they absolutely did not have 2-3 mins warning.

          The audio starts at the time the warning is first announced and someone jumps in the conversation at 1:10 to say the bridge just collapsed. Near the beginning of the recording, one of the guys stopping traffic says he will go grab the crew working on the bridge once backup gets there to keep traffic stopped. Fortunately for him, but unfortunately for the workers, backup doesn’t get there.

    2. Yes they stopped traffic at both ends. In the livestream video of the bridge, you can see the ship lose all power 4 minutes before the bridge strike. You can see traffic crossing until shortly before the strike, with the last vehicle making it off the doomed span only 35 seconds before the bridge strike and destruction. The construction crew was still parked on the bridge with flashing yellow lights, having closed one lane to do road surface repairs during the overnight period of low traffic. Apparently no one was able to inform the crew in time. Audio from the bridge closure makes it clear they were treating it as temporary and precautionary, rather than knowing destruction was imminent.

  6. The economic impact of this is going to be incredible. It will probably be weeks, if not months, before the channel into the Port of Baltimore is reopened to shipping. There are thousands of people who rely on the port for jobs who are not going to be able to work.

    One of the reasons why this particular bridge collapsing is such an issue is because all of the hazardous materials traffic and oversized loads have to use that bridge to get from one side if the port to the other. Now they’ll have to go all the way around the city. It’ll probably take at least two years, if not more, before a new bridge is ready.

    1. Two years would be if this happened in China, we’ll be lucky if there’s a replacement bridge within a decade. The Key Bridge originally took 4 years to build in the 1970s, the Sunshine Skyway took 7 years to rebuild in the 1980s, the new eastern span of the Oakland Bay bridge took 11 years between the 2000s-2010s. 5 years would probably be a miracle, 7-10 is more likely

      1. “Oakland Bay bridge took 11 years between the 2000s-2010s”

        That would be shorter if there weren’t intensely protracted battles in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C. over the budget and design. At that time, California was running deep in red and could barely afford anything.

      2. On the other hand, when the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis collapsed in 2007, a replacement was up and running in about 13 months. We can move fast when we need to–we usually just decide we can wait.

  8. Ok, I won’t hold it anymore. It’s been on the tip of my tongue since the beginning…

    CAN SOMEONE PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS @!#@#%#$%@#$ “AUTOPIAN TV” VIDEO THAT ALWAYS SITS IN THE MIDDLE OF EVERY ARTICLE ??? CAN IT BE PUT AT THE VERY BEGINNING, OR AT THE VERY END ???

    Please. Pretty please. Sorry for the yelling. Sorry for the bold. I can’t take it anymore.

    I start reading an article, I start watching the pictures, and right in the middle as I scroll down I see movement, and I’m always “oh, there’s video to it too”, and then it’s some completely unrelated Autopian Youtube plug.

    Here I am reading about a tragic world event, and there’s that unrelated plug again.

    I know the advertisement is needed. I will watch it. I will click through it.
    Just please, please, for the love of Soichiro Honda, put it at the very top, or the very bottom, so I can enjoy it at my own terms. We’re all cute here but we’re not kids. Please.

      2. Thanks
        I don’t mind watching it. I mind it being slapped in the middle of the article.
        I open ten articles in tabs – that’s ten times the same thing.

        I know clicks and views are money, and I want to help by watching them. No issue with that. The issue is with its insane placement.

  9. Thank you, Jason, nothing to see here, the utterly unexpected happened and the right people turned up and did what they do. Odd really as the world is falling apart.

    1. Well there’s nothing to see here… yet. But there are almost always a series of failures/negligence/fuckups when something like this happens. Investigators will have their hands full figuring out exactly what went wrong and how the factors combined to defeat the redundancies that should have stopped the accident.

      2. Well yeah. There are quite a few people whose jobs are to make sure that this DOESNT happen. When it happens anyways, it means that most of those people failed to do their job in some capacity.

      3. Even the best maintained ships occasionally (tho rarely) lose power due to unforeseen circumstances.
        Usually it’s due to rough seas knocking some sensor into sending a signal that puts the ship into shutdown mode.
        I’m sure the investigations will tell us in time what occurred.

  10. I think they may be saying Baltimore became the port for Beetles being imported in 1963, while clarifying that it’s not a New Beetle or something. Not implying that the Beetle first came here in 63

  11. I believe this will be the first time the statutory jurisdictions of the NTSB (who investigates transportation accidents) and NIST (who investigates structural failures, only recently designated) have intersected. One could argue the cause of the event was a transportation incident, another could plausibly argue the structural failure is the biggest impact, so it will be interesting to see which agency is designated as the lead investigator and how the report is authored.

    1. Well, there was the Sunshine Skyway Bridge Collapse in the early 80s that was also ship-hits-bridge, so should have been NTSB meets NIST.

      1. Looks like the exact date NIST became the lead agency for structural failures is the National Construction Safety Act from 2002, so not as recent as I thought, but clear of the 80s as well. Tinfoil hat moment, apparently it was due to the collapse of WTC7.

  12. Was going to make a joke about steer-by-wire
    but people freaking died, so it’s not funny.
    Heard a bit of an interview with a guy on that road crew who had the day off. I can only imagine the survivor’s guilt

  13. I’m in the port design industry, and one of the scenarios we always simulate when considering a new terminal or a big change to vessel traffic is a loss of rudder. It happens despite the redundancies, regulations, and inspections.

  14. This looks a LOT like the same mistake they made on the Titanic. Specifically, if they hadn’t thrown the prop into full reverse they might have maintained rudder control. As it was, doing so pretty much guaranteed loss of all steering. I assume they were also running the thrusters at full tilt too, but those had little hope against the reverse prop instability.

    Now, as I say this, I must remind myself that they had about ninety seconds to act in a massive panic and I would not have done any better.

    Also, how fast can the redundant systems kick in? I didn’t time the loss of power, but it didn’t seem terribly long, it just happened at a truly terrible moment.

    Those poor road workers. 🙁

      1. I was going off what the marine expert said, as I am most definitely not an expert on anything. Don’t call me Columbo, please call me Surely.

        1. Well, he was, like everyone else at this point, talking out of his ass. He even said as much. So there, Perry “Surley” Mason.

          1. As am I pretty much all the time.

            You could say I am but a rudderless ship plying open seas in a dense fog.

            Sorry, my full name is Surely Cherry Chevapravatdumrong. Don’t call me Shirley!

              1. I’ve never seen it. I really should watch it given my overall appreciation for pretty much all of Katey Sagal’s work. Thanks for reminding me. I need something after I finish Resident Alien.

    1. To me, it’s almost unfathomable…it’s literally the “irresistible force” of physics lore.

      And apparently, this same ship was involved in a collision at port in Antwerp in 2016.

      1. Yeah, but the Antwerp thing was ruled a navigational error, they swung around too soon and smacked the dock, wasn’t a mechanical failure. Also happened under a different owner and management company

  17. As of an hour ago, the Governor of Maryland indicated the search and rescue activity continues – but that is some cold water. 🙁

    If you watch the video above (with the guy in the blue shirt) you may note that he pronounces ‘Dundalk’ as ‘Dun-dahk’. For some reason that is how the locals say it; I don’t know why.

    I’m glad this didn’t happen during a period of high traffic, and really don’t want to think about being in that sort of situation (bridge or boat).

    1. It’s not the worst of the Bal-more dialect for sure.

      As terrible as this is, totally on the hour of it being some good luck. If this had hit in the middle of the day, the situation would have been much much worse. Of course, search and rescue in the water in the middle of the night is horrendous.

        1. That’s what I was picturing in the last part of my post: being stuck on the bridge in traffic, seeing the ship heading directly for the pylon, and having a pretty damned grim realization of what’s about to happen. Ugh.

    2. I don’t know why either. I live about twenty minutes from the OG Dundalk, in Co. Louth in Ireland. My wife lived there for years. It’s pronounced much more like “dun-DAWK”, taken from the Irish Dún Dealgan, named for being the supposed location of a fort belonging to a mythical chieftain.

    1. As someone who has lived in DC and Hobart and crossed both of those bridges tons of times this is just really shit. Condolences to the families of those missing and those whose lives are about to be upended by the severing of a main beltway, not that those are equivalent.

    2. That’s wild: the other car stopped—then was rear ended pushing their front wheels over the edge. And the crime statistics from the community isolated by the broken bridge—damn.

  19. I wonder what the NTSB report will say. Although we will probably need to wait at least a year for it to come out.

    From watching the linked YouTube video, I suspect human error lead to the mechanical failure. Then additional human error made the situation worse.

    I don’t envy the people who need to unwind the liability.

    1. Possibly related

      The 9-year-old container ship had passed previous inspections during its time at sea, but during one such inspection in June at the Port of San Antonio in Chile, officials discovered a deficiency with its “propulsion and auxiliary machinery (gauges, thermometers, etc),” according to the Tokyo MOU, an intergovernmental maritime authority in the Asia-Pacific region.

      The report provided no other information about the deficiency except to note that it was not serious enough to remove the ship from service.

  20. “Baltimore is the port of entry for Volvo, Jaguar/Land Rover, Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen, and other carmakers, so if the port is shut down, this could be a very big deal for getting new cars – especially European cars – into America.”

    Is this true for cars destined for the west coast? Or do they arrive at west coast ports?

      2. Port Hueneme in Oxnard for BMWs, Minis, Hyundai, Kia, Rolls Royce, etc.
        Long Beach for Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Nissan, and others.

        Those are the two ports in So Cal where cars are delivered – as none come to San Pedro/Los Angeles and I don’t believe any come thru San Diego.

    3. I just shipped a car from the UK to the Port of Tacoma so there are certainly RORO vessels running this route. I don’t know whether any manufacturers make use of this but I doubt there’s an economic case to be made for operating such ships only in support of the occasional weirdo wanting to bring over some decades-old BL abomination.

      In my case the car arrived on Saturday and is currently waiting to clear customs.

      1. It just seems silly and inefficient for cars made in Japan to be shipped via the Panama Canal to Baltimore then sent to California by rail or road over the Rockies with the additional cost and risk of damage. As opposed to shipping them to Seattle or Los Angeles or wherever. At least the cars destined for dealerships on the West Coast.

    4. I seem to remember when I was looking at used JDM engines that they were all shipped into Baltimore, even ones destined for the western US. I wouldn’t be surprised if some west coast cars get shipped to Baltimore.

  21. Well the wacko’s are already out in force. It’s a false flag operation, a terrorist attack, caused by diversity hires, and illegal immigrants crashed the ship on purpose. Fox News is sounding the alarm and Marjorie Taylor Greene has joined the fray. I feel like I am living in bizarro world.

    2. actually, the captain was Ukrainian and it will keep happening until we fund the war again.

      this is what I read, apparently people are saying it on telegram which I don’t have any access too.

      Just to keep you updated on the latest hot takes.

    6. It’s also Joe Biden’s fault for signing an infrastructure bill that didn’t pay for a bridge that no one knew was going to need replaced, and the fault of “Governors who prioritize diversity over the wellbeing [sic] and security of citizens.” (Those are from Rep. Nancy Mace and Utah gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman, respectively.)

    7. Clearly Fox News paid illegal immigrants to sabotage this ship via operatives supplied by that My Pillow guy. It’s all for the ratings. Gotta give angry old white people some reason to keep watching and buying pillows.

    2. They dropped the port anchor. Not clear if they also dropped (or tried to) the starboard. I’d expect they need power to drop the anchors, those things are massive.

    3. There are probably several plausible reasons. Until we have a licensed Pilot (that is qualified on that vessel/the territory/and was there) release a statement, it would just be blind speculation.

  24. The ultimate owner of the ship is Mitsui & Co. Ltd of Tokyo, via a subsidiary, Grace Ocean Pte Ltd in Singapore, with Synergy Marine (also Singapore) as managers. It’s insured by Britannia Steamship Insurance Association in the UK

    1. I’ve always found the owner-operator-origin trails of the big ocean-going ships fascinating. It’s almost never a clear line.

      My father was once involved in this years back, and he’d always tell us stories in particular about the insurance carriers and their enormous impact on global trade.

      1. In the case of cruise lines, you can sometimes tell which names their marketing departments considered for new ships before the one they went with, because they set up the ship-owning LLC under whatever name they were considering at the time

    3. Britannia and its reinsurers are defecating building materials right now over the cost of rebuilding an entire bridge span and compensation for lost business.

    1. They probably need a way to warn crews on the bridge as well. Though depending on the timing I’m not sure they would have been able to reach safety.

      1. I think there’s not a good way to recognize the positioning of pylons beneath a bridge with respect to the ship when you are on top of the bridge. One would probably assume the ship is steering between supports like it’s supposed to, aside from the ship suddenly varying between lit up and completely dark.

        1. If you pay any attention to the bridge its easy to know where the pylons are when you’re driving over it. On this bridge the pylons were under the bases of the arch.

          The ship had power shortly before impact and was blowing smoke from its engine. I dunno if that would have been noticeable to drivers. If it was drivers might have noticed the ship wasn’t where it was supposed to be and that it was pointed funny compared to ships they were used to seeing.

      2. The parapet on this bridge is unusually low, so the drivers probably could see the ship, though I doubt they’d be able to make the connection that it was aimed at the pier unless they are familiar with bridge design.

        Personally if I was on that bridge and noticed that there was a monster ship aimed at where the bottom chord of the truss angled down below the deck to connect to that middle pier… I’d be testing the limits of Pentastar V6 acceleration. But that also assumes I’m able to see such a thing that’s unlit at 1am.

        I’m going to assume those people were blissfully unaware, and are counting their lucky stars right now.

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