Doomed cargo ship Dali was being piloted by a LOCAL crew who were trained to AVOID obstacles in the Baltimore port – as it emerges 100,000-ton vessel ‘lost control and propulsion’ moments before smashing into the bridge
The cargo ship that smashed into the Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore overnight was piloted by a specialized crew trained to avoid obstacles at ports, it has emerged.
The ship, a 948-foot-long DALI operated by Singaporean company Synergy Group, collided with the 1.2-mile bridge shortly after 1:26am as it departed the Port of Baltimore.
Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld told a Tuesday morning press conference that it appears none of the 22 crewmembers were injured, as he revealed it was being steered by the specialist pilots.
‘Pilots move ships in and out of the Port of Baltimore,’ he said at a press conference, noting that the specialist pilots depart the ships as soon as they are in open water.
Officials were quick to rule out the catastrophe as intentional or an act of terrorism, and an early Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) report found the container ship ‘lost propulsion’ as it was leaving port.
‘The vessel notified MD Department of Transportation (MDOT) that they had lost control of the vessel and an allision with the bridge was possible,’ the report said. ‘The vessel struck the bridge causing a complete collapse.’
The Dali container ship had undergone 27 inspections since 2015, and it had been found to have two ‘deficiencies’, according to a CNN review of records from the Electronic Quality Shipping Information System (Equasis).
Notably, this included a June 2023 inspection in San Antonio, Chile, where a deficiency was found in the ‘propulsion and auxiliary machinery’ – with propulsion faults also noted in the early CISA report.
The Dali was also involved in a 2016 incident at the Port of Antwerp. A review in November of that year in Antwerp, Belgium found another ‘deficiency’ in its ‘structural conditions.’
No deficiencies were found when the vessel was last inspected on September 9, 2023 by the US Coast Guard in New York.
All activity out of the Port of Baltimore, one of the most important trade hubs in North America, has ground to a halt.
The ship had departed the Seagirt Marine Terminal at around 12:30am Tuesday, before turning southeast towards the bridge around half an hour later.
The Dali was intended to sail underneath the bridge, however it struck a support beam. Investigations into the accident are still ongoing.
Observers said that black smoke was seen emanating from the ship in the moments beforehand, suggesting the crew may have attempted to reverse its engines.
Rescue crews are continuing their efforts to save those impacted by the accident, with around two dozen cars believed to have been on the bridge at the time.
Around 20 construction workers were also working on the bridge at the time, sending them plummeting into the frigid 47-degree water.
As of early Tuesday, two people had been pulled from the water. One was uninjured, and the other was rushed to hospital in ‘very serious condition.’
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GUNS N GEAR
The fact that “authorities” quickly ruled out terrorism or intentional acts, means that is exactly where they don’t want you to be looking. Could this have been cyber attacked? Another thing is, they said the sight of smoke billowing from the exhaust ports could be a sign of trying to reverse the engines. It could also be a sign of pouring the coals to the engines too then. This stinks of foul play and reminds me of the Notre Dame cathedral burning in Paris. At all costs they hid what everyone knew…it was intentionally set ablaze, and they, in turn, intentionally hid the evidence. I think the more time goes by, the more this is gonna stink.
Yeah, I recall that France was declaring that Notre Dame was definitely not arson while it was still very early in the burning and live on tv. That occurred in a period when there were hundreds of Islamic arson attacks on churches throughout France. Similarly, Uncle Sammy seems to be clairvoyant about terrorist attacks on concert venues in Moscow weeks before they happen, and then knows for certain who did it and who definitely didn’t before the smoke clears. My conclusions are that Islamists burned ND and the Ace Tomato Company had Moscow shot up based upon common sense and a lifetime of watching these liars in action.
The Baltimore situation could still be a simple accident, we will have to see. The Captain is a Ukrainian national, so there is that. The harbor pilot and his “crew” were in charge of the helm when the collision occurred, but this team likely just provides bow, stern, port, and starboard watch with radio contact to the pilot on the bridge who controls navigation in the inner harbor. The ships captain will be just standing aside until the pilot clears the ship, but the rest of his crew will be following the pilot’s directions. This includes the engineering department. The diesel smoke billowing indicates they had increased load on the engines, but not if they were trying to reverse them or accelerate headway. That should be easy to find out, but it will be very difficult to prove this was anything but an accident unless there is video of someone cutting the power at the critical moment.