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

The Dali freighter that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge suffered a “serious electrical problem” while docked in Baltimore days earlier, according to a dockworker.

Julie Mitchell, co-manager of Container Royalty, a company that tracks cargo, told CNN The ship was anchored in port for at least 48 hours before the fatal accident.

“And those two days, they had serious power outages…they had a serious electrical problem,” Mitchell told the station. “It was a total power outage, loss of engine power, everything.”

Mitchell explained that the refrigerated boxes tripped circuit breakers on board the ship on several occasions and mechanics had been trying to fix the problem. He said he did not know if the problem had been fixed when the ship sailed.

The 1.6-mile Key Bridge partially collapsed after the cargo container ship crashed into one of its support structures shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the ship’s crew notified officials that it had lost power moments before the collision.

Mitchell told CNN that major power problems aboard large vessels like the Dali are “not that common at all,” and described the strange incident as “very rare.”

“They shouldn’t have let the ship leave port until they had it under control,” he said.

Six workers who were on the bridge pouring concrete to fix potholes as part of a night shift remain missing and are presumed dead.

It has been widely reported that the Dali suffered a loss of propulsion leading to steering problems in the run-up to the accident which caused the iconic bridge to collapse like a “house of cards”.

A Dali official also said that before the accident, the engines “coughed and then stopped.” There was not enough time before the ship hit the bridge to drop anchor, causing the ship to drift.

“The ship was left without steering, without electronic system… The smell of burning fuel was everywhere in the engine room and it was completely dark,” the officer said.

When a ship like the Dali runs out of power, backup generators kick in, but they don’t perform all the same functions as main power, Pagoulatos said.

In 2016, the Dali suffered an accident in the port of Antwerp.

Antwerp port authorities said the container ship Dali collided with a dock on July 11, 2016, while trying to leave the North Sea container terminal.

A 2016 inspection of the ship in Antwerp found it had a structural problem, which was described as “hull damage affecting its seaworthiness,” according to data published on Equasis, a public database for the shipping industry.

Inspectors discovered a problem in the Dali’s machinery in June, but a more recent examination found no deficiencies, according to the Equasis maritime information system.

Port authorities said the ship remained at the dock for repairs for some time after the incident.

“As a general rule, these accidents are investigated and ships can only leave after experts have determined it is safe to do so,” a spokesperson for the port of Antwerp told Reuters.

Video footage on social media showed the ship crashing into the bridge in the dark, vehicle headlights visible along the stretch as it crashed into the water and the ship caught fire.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said closing one of the country’s busiest shipping routes until further notice would have a “significant and prolonged impact on supply chains.”

The Port of Baltimore handles more auto cargo than any other U.S. port — more than 750,000 vehicles in 2022, according to port data.