 "The collision with the bridge, which stretches 2.6 kilometres and was used by 12 million vehicles last year, took place at 1.28 am. Reuters")
A cargo ship lost power and rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday.
The iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge was destroyed in a matter of seconds and plunged into the Patapsco River in a terrifying collapse that could disrupt a vital shipping port for months.
Six people were missing and presumed dead, and the search for them was suspended until Wednesday morning.
Here’s all we know about the average-sized cargo ship that caused the collapse.
Also read: Baltimore bridge collapse: Are there any casualties? What caused the accident?
About Dali – the ship that rammed into Baltimore bridge
Constructed by the Korean Hyundai shipyard in 2015, the Dali container ship is 300 metres long (985 feet), 48 metres wide, and 24.8 metres tall, with a gross tonnage of 95,000 tonnes, according to AFP.
It can hold up to 8,344 cubic metres (2.2 million gallons) of fuel, according to Marine Traffic.
The ship belongs to Singapore-based Grace Ocean Private Ltd, owned by a Hong Kong group, and was carrying containers on behalf of Danish shipping giant Maersk.
The Dali frequently links Asian ports with the US’ East Coast, and passed through the Panama Canal on 13 March before stopping at New York, Norfolk and finally Baltimore.
It is insured by UK-based Britannia.
On 11 July 2016, soon after commissioning, the Dali accidentally hit a dock in the Belgian port of Antwerp as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal, according to the sites Vessel Finder and Ship wrecklog. The port authority could give no details about the cause of the accident but said the ship had remained at the dock for repairs for some time after the incident, as per Reuters.
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More Shorts“As a general rule, these accidents are investigated and ships are only allowed to leave after experts have determined it is safe for them to do so,” a spokesperson for the Antwerp port told the news agency.
An inspection of the Dali last June at a port in Chile identified a problem with the ship’s “propulsion and auxiliary machinery,” according to Equasis, a shipping information system. The deficiency involved gauges and thermometers, but the website’s online records didn’t elaborate, reported The Associated Press.
The most recent inspection listed for the Dali was conducted by the US Coast Guard in New York in September. The “standard examination” didn’t identify any deficiencies, according to the Equasis data.
Also read: Baltimore bridge collapse: How the ship’s Indian crew helped avert a bigger disaster
The recent tragedy
The ship flying under Singapore’s flag departed from Baltimore port at 1 am local time on Tuesday for a journey lasting around one month to Colombo, Sri Lanka, as per Marine Traffic.
The operators of the Dali cargo ship issued a mayday call that the vessel had lost power moments before the crash. At around 1.28 am, the vessel struck one of the 2.6-kilometre bridge’s supports, causing the span to break and fall into the water within seconds. Puffs of black smoke were seen as the lights flickered on and off.
The ship was moving at eight knots, which is roughly 15 kilometres per hour.
Synergy Marine, the Singapore company that operates the Dali, said it was being controlled by two Baltimore port pilots at the time of the collision.
With the ship barreling towards the bridge at “a very, very rapid speed,” authorities had just enough time to stop cars from coming over the bridge, Maryland governor Wes Moore said.
The six missing people were part of a construction crew filling potholes on the bridge, according to Paul Wiedefeld, the state’s transportation secretary. Guatemala’s consulate in Maryland said in a statement that two of the missing were citizens of the Central American nation. Honduras’ deputy foreign affairs minister Antonio Garcia told AP that a Honduran citizen, Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, was missing. The Washington Consulate of Mexico also said on X that citizens of that nation were also among the missing.
A senior executive at the company that employed the workers also said in the afternoon that the workers were presumed dead given the water’s depth and how much time had passed.
Rescuers pulled two people out of the water, one of whom was treated at a hospital and discharged hours later. Multiple vehicles also went into the river, although authorities did not believe anyone was inside.
Indian crew on board
Synergy said all crew members and the two pilots on board were accounted for, and there were no reports of any injuries.
“All 22 crew members of Cargo ship that hit Key Bridge in Baltimore are Indian,” Synergy said in a statement issued on its website.
After the tragedy, Maryland governor Wes Moore hailed the Indian crew on board the Dali, saying that it was their quick thinking that saved other lives.
The US president Joe Biden said that the crew notifying officials that they had lost control of the ship, prompted the shutdown of the bridge, a move that “undoubtedly” resulted in the saving of many lives.
Personnel on board the ship were able to alert the Maryland Department of Transportation that they had lost control of their vessel. As a result, local authorities were able to close the bridge to traffic before it was struck, which undoubtedly saved lives,” stated Biden during his comments at the White House regarding the collapse.
A logistical nightmare
Tuesday’s collapse might create a logistical nightmare along the East Coast for months, if not years, shutting down ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore.
The port is a major East Coast hub for shipping. The four-lane bridge spans the Patapsco River at the entrance to the busy harbour, which leads to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
Opened in 1977, the bridge, named for the writer of The Star-Spangled Banner, carries 11.3 million vehicles a year, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority.
Wiedefeld said all vessel traffic into and out of the port would be suspended until further notice, though the facility was still open to trucks.
The loss of the bridge will also snarl cargo and commuter traffic.
The head of a supply chain management company said Americans should expect shortages of goods from the collapse’s effect on ocean container shipping and East Coast trucking.
“It’s not just the port of Baltimore that’s going to be impacted,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport.
“While Baltimore is not one of the largest U.S. East Coast ports, it still imports and exports more than one million containers each year, so there is the potential for this to cause significant disruption to supply chains,” CBS News quoted Emily Stausbøll, a market analyst at Xeneta, an ocean and air freight analytics platform, as saying in a statement.
She added that concerns associated with conflict in the Red Sea and the ongoing drought in the Panama Canal have already made it difficult for freight services from Asia to the US East Coast. If Baltimore cannot be reached, other ports will handle additional shipments, such as those in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia.
Whether ocean freight shipping rates will rise dramatically, potentially affecting consumers as retailers pass along higher costs, will depend on how much extra capacity the alternate ports can handle, Stausbøll said. “However, there is only so much port capacity available and this will leave supply chains vulnerable to any further pressure.”
Last year, the Port of Baltimore handled a record 52.3 million tonnes of foreign cargo worth $80 billion, according to the state.
The collapse, though, is not likely to hurt worldwide trade because Baltimore is not a major port for container vessels. Its facilities are more important when it comes to goods such as farm equipment and autos, said Judah Levine, head of research for global freight booking platform Freightos.
President Biden intends for the federal government to pick up the entire cost of rebuilding. “This is going to take some time,” he said.
Similar bridge collapses
From 1960 to 2015, there were 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collisions, according to a 2018 report from the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure.
Eighteen of those collapses happened in the United States, according to AP.
Among them was a 2002 incident in which a barge struck the Interstate 40 bridge over the Arkansas River at Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, sending vehicles plunging into the water. Fourteen people died and 11 were injured.
In 2001, a tugboat and barge struck the Queen Isabella Causeway in Port Isabel, Texas, causing a section of the bridge to tumble 80 feet (24 meters) into the bay below. Eight people were killed.
With inputs from agencies