THE chain of events which caused containership Dali (IMO: 9697428) to hit Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge has been traced back to a single loose wire.
At a public hearing on Tuesday, November 18, the US National Transportation Safety Board said a loose wire in the vessel’s electrical system caused a breaker to unexpectedly open, which in turn caused the two blackouts on board Dali and the subsequent loss of propulsion.
Investigators found the wire-label banding was too low and meant it could not be properly inserted into a terminal, causing a loose connection.
After the blackout, the NTSB said the Dali’s heading began swinging to starboard towards Pier 17 of the bridge. Investigators said pilots and crew tried to change the vessel’s trajectory, but the loss of propulsion so close to the bridge meant they were unable to prevent the allision.
A large portion of the bridge collapsed into the Patapsco river, killing six highway workers.
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy praised her investigation team’s role in finding the cause of the accident.
“Our investigators routinely accomplish the impossible, and this investigation is no different,” she said.
“Dali, at almost 1,000 feet, is as long as the Eiffel Tower is high, with miles of wiring and thousands of electrical connections.
“Finding this single wire was like hunting for a loose rivet on the Eiffel Tower.”
The bridge itself was vulnerable to collapse, the NTSB said. The increase of size in modern-day vessels has only contributed to this vulnerability.
The agency highlighted the incident involving Japanese containership Blue Nagoya, which struck the bridge in 1980, but caused minor damage.
Dali on the other hand is 10 times the size of Blue Nagoya.
NTSB said it sent letters to 30 bridge owners identified as vulnerable to vessel strikes and urged them to evaluate their bridges and develop plans to reduce risk.
Just this week did the Maryland Transportation Authority announce the project to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge would likely take longer and cost much more.
Initial estimates said the bridge rebuild would cost between $1.7bn-$1.9bn and be completed by autumn 2028.
But the latest estimate said the project would cost $4.3bn-$5.2bn and would not be completed until 2030.
