The Dali cargo ship which smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge suffered a ‘severe electrical problem’ while docked in Baltimore days before, according to a port worker.
Julie Mitchell, co-administrator of Container Royalty, a company which tracks cargo, told CNNthe ship was anchored at the port for at least 48 hours prior to the deadly crash.
Following the devastation, she said: ‘And those two days, they were having serious power outages… they had a severe electrical problem. It was total power failure, loss of engine power, everything.’
Mitchell explained that refrigerated boxes tripped breakers on board the ship on several occasions, and mechanics had been trying to fix the issue.
She said she didn’t know whether the problem had been fixed when the ship set off.
The 1.6-mile Key Bridge partially collapsed after the cargo shipping container vessel crashed into one of its support structures just before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore said the ship’s crew notified officials that it had lost power in the moments before the collision.
Mitchell told CNN that major power problems on board large vessels like the Dali are ‘not really that common at all’, describing the freak incident as ‘very rare’.
‘They shouldn’t have let the ship leave port until they got it on under control,’ she said.
Six workers who were on the bridge, pouring concrete to fix potholes as part of a graveyard shift, remain missing and are presumed dead.
It has been widely reported that the Dali suffered a loss in propulsion which caused steering issues in the lead-up to the crash that caused the iconic bridge to collapse like a ‘house of cards.’
One officer on the Dali also said that before the crash, the engines ‘coughed and then stopped.’ There was not enough time before the ship hit the bridge to drop anchors prompting the vessel to drift.
‘The vessel went dead, no steering power and no electronics… The smell of burned fuel was everywhere in the engine room and it was pitch black,’ the officer said.
When a ship such as the Dali loses power, backup generators kick in but they do not fulfill all of the same functions as the main power, Pagoulatos said.
In 2016, the Dali was involved in an accident in the port of Antwerp.
The Antwerp port authorities said the container ship Dali hit a quay on July 11, 2016, as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal.
A 2016 inspection of the vessel conducted in Antwerp found it had a structural issue, which was stated as ‘hull damage impairing its seaworthiness,’ according to data published on Equasis, a public database for the shipping industry.
Inspectors found a problem with the Dali’s machinery in June, but a more recent examination did not identify any deficiencies, according to the shipping information system Equasis.
The port authorities said the ship had remained at the dock for repairs for some time after the incident.
‘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 Antwerp port told Reuters.
Video footage on social media showed the vessel slamming into the bridge in darkness, the headlights of vehicles visible on the span as it crashed into the water and the ship caught fire.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said closure of one of the country’s busiest shipping lanes until further notice would have a ‘major and protracted impact to supply chains.’
The Port of Baltimore handles more automobile cargo than any other U.S. port – more than 750,000 vehicles in 2022, according to port data.