The Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore collapses after a ship crashed into it
The Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore collapses after a ship crashed into it
A cargo ship crashed into one of two main supports for the 2.5km long bridge at around 1:30AM EDT.
There is an ongoing search and rescue effort and authorities are looking for upwards of seven people.
Two pilots were on board. Apparently there were issues with the ship's propulsion system at last inspection. My money is on a mechanical issue; if not, this was a monumental fuck up by the harbor pilots and/or the crew.
edit: lol, I am pleased with how this comment has aged. Yes, it was a power loss. Quick thinking and action saved lives. Bravo. Now it remains to be seen whether deferred maintenance or similar negligence were to blame; if so, people need to pay up.
It appears to have lost all power once, maybe twice.
They evidently called Mayday before colliding. But if I was asleep at the wheel and woke up to see a bridge coming at me, I’d probably let yell Mayday too.
Why no tug boats to assist the vessel? I find it odd that the ship was allowed to depart on its own.
I assume it was already under way (or whatever).
I watch commercial shipping all day out my office window, almost all tugs are used to just move the ship away from the wharf, something on the order of a boat-length.
I don't know what the layout of the harbour in this incident, but the boat could have been kilometres from the wharf where it docked.
Fuck that's terrifying
That looked expensive.
A cascading failure event. Luckily, there is already infrastructure money, so we don't have to watch Congress dithering.
Might ss well start a ferry service. It’ll be decades before this is fixed/replaced.
reminds me of some video in Japan where they can rebuild stuff like this overnight.