tvengr
Well Known Member
The Key Bridge in Baltimore harbor has been struck by a cargo ship and collapsed. There were workers on the bridge at the time. Assets from Baltimore County and all of the surrounding counties are responding.
Key Bridge Collapse
- Thread starter tvengr
- Start date
BCFD F3 T32S
Maryland ship pilots at it - or should we say not at it again. Two major causalities in two years. This could close the port of Baltimore to ship traffic for a period of time until the channel is cleared. Amazon and other companies have extensive warehousing operations at Sparrows Point so they will need to reroute.
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Live video feed
You can scroll back and see the impact time. Looks like the boat started spewing a lot of black smoke, changed its course, the lights went off for a while then came back on and it impacted the bridge.
Here's an excerpt from that YT live stream sped up 5x
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The ship starts blowing black smoke, and around that time the course appears to change and the lights on the ship go off for about 30 seconds, while it's still turning towards the bridge support... and then crashes into it, and the bridge collapses.
SomaFM Rusty (@somafmrusty) on Threads
www.threads.net
The ship starts blowing black smoke, and around that time the course appears to change and the lights on the ship go off for about 30 seconds, while it's still turning towards the bridge support... and then crashes into it, and the bridge collapses.
The camera has a zoom lens so motion and course changes could be visually exaggerated. I suppose one could initially conclude that the black smoke indicated an increase in speed and a deliberate turn into the supporting structure. I'm pretty sure the vessel has already be boarded as there are security teams from multiple agencies stationed at the port.
If you go way back in the YT live stream, there are several other ships that come through the bridge before, so you can get an idea for the course they should have been taking.
You can see the course change. BUT that seems to happen after the first power failure. It might have occurred if they were pushing against the current. I'm not sure what the tides were at the time of the accident.
You can see the course change. BUT that seems to happen after the first power failure. It might have occurred if they were pushing against the current. I'm not sure what the tides were at the time of the accident.
They could very well have suffered a causality prior to striking the support pier - obviously something caused them to steer out of the channel.
At least one crew member aboard was injured, possibly a cut hand. Apparently he was taken off the vessel and the FD command is trying to find out who transported him and to where.
tvengr
Well Known Member
When Baltimore County Fire first dispatched, they mentioned a steering failure.
I see two blackouts. Soot likely from auto shutdown not a speed-up, as a slow speed diesel engine is still turning, EGE offline so soot blows. Restart and then another blackout - possibly from overloading main bus in conjunction with bow thruster transformer. I can't make out an anchor drop - usually only one is rigged for maneuvering. Can't make out stbd side but no motion on port that I could see. Probably would not have helped.
Yea a blackout will do that. The restoration of power after the first blackout I suspect lead to a scramble and another blackout as the auxiliary engines probably met bus/power interference from the restarted EGE.
Total guesses but I have seen similar blackout events before. Tragedy. Sorry to see.
EDIT: I went back and looked carefully on full screen and they might well have dropped the port anchor 4 or 5 seconds or so after the first blackout.
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The restart seems like 35 seconds from the first blackout. That seems fully legit. If the port (or any) anchor was dropped, power then comes back they are pushing the bow thruster full to move to port - against the anchor. We see the stern slide to port just before the collision in the second blackout. It (anchor) hooked up and is pivoting on the anchor. A guess a few have already probably made.
There are times when despite every effort things go south.
There are times when despite every effort things go south.
In addition, USCG and Trooper 1 chatter also on First Responders Interoperable Radio System Team (FIRST)
8119 (Tac 6 (Central/NCR)/Statewide Interoperability)
Watching local news and no one has mentioned the steering failure, the puff of black smoke, nor the lights all going out.
All they do know for sure is that it's not terror related.
All they do know for sure is that it's not terror related.
