Cargo ship that crashed into Baltimore bridge suffered power blackout hours before leaving port

The cargo ship that crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge suffered four power blackouts before colliding with the bridge, two occurring hours before the incident.

A National Transportation Safety Board report found that the Singapore-flagged Dali cargo ship suffered two power blackouts 10 hours before leaving port, then suffered two more moments before colliding with the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The details were discovered as part of an NTSB report, the full version of which may take over a year to complete. A preliminary version was released on Tuesday.

According to the report, four power blackouts occurred in total, two clustered around an incident 10 hours before and two just before the impact with the bridge.

The first series of power outages occurred while the ship was in port. These were caused when a crew member mistakenly closed an exhaust chamber, causing the ship to stall. Though quickly fixed, insufficient fuel pressure caused a second blackout.

The next series of outages occurred just moments before the Dali’s fatal collision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge. According to the report, the first outage was triggered when the main power breaker, which fed most of the vessel’s equipment and lighting, unexpectedly opened, causing the Dali to lose propulsion.

The ship’s crew restored power and signaled for a tugboat for help. The crew also began the process of dropping anchor but was unable to before a second blackout occurred when two key breakers unexpectedly opened.

According to the report, the crew was able to restore power right before the collision with the bridge but was unable to restore propulsion.

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The collision killed six construction workers who were working on the bridge. The crew of the Dali survived unharmed.

The ship itself was trapped under the rubble of the bridge until Monday when it was largely freed in a controlled demolition.