Investigators seeking answers to the devastating destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was struck by a shipping container in the early hours of Tuesday are exploring the idea that dirty fuel could have been responsible.
A shocking new report from The Wall Street Journal According to naval architect Fotis Pagoulatos, blackouts like the one Dalí suffered before the collision are rare on ships and extremely dangerous.
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”.
The cause of those problems is likely to be the source of a lengthy investigation.
A Dali official 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.
Six workers who were on the bridge pouring concrete to fix potholes as part of a night shift remain missing and are presumed dead.
The Singapore-flagged container ship named Dali, leaving the port of Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka, crashed into a support tower of the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the mouth of the Patapsco River around 1:30 a.m.
A trestle section of the 1.6-mile stretch collapsed almost immediately into the icy water, sending vehicles and people into the river.
Rescuers pulled two survivors to safety, one of whom was hospitalized. They and the six missing were part of a work crew filling potholes in the bridge’s road surface, authorities previously said.
The ship reported a power outage before impact, allowing officials to stop traffic on the bridge before the collapse.
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.
The Belgian nautical committee, which investigates such incidents, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman representing the ship’s owner could not immediately be reached.
The first of the six: Miguel Luna, 49, was the first missing construction worker identified after the collapse
Maynor Suazo, 37, a native of Honduras, has been named as the other man missing and presumed dead.
The MS Dali, owned by Grace Ocean Pte Ltd and managed by Synergy Marine Corp, collided with one of the pillars of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday, collapsing a large segment of its 1.6-mile span.
The head of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, told media Tuesday that her team will investigate all aspects of Dalí and his background.
There was no evidence of foul play, authorities said. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott described a scene of twisted metal shooting into the sky.
“It was something out of an action movie. It was something you never thought you’d see,’ she said.
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.