Why did the bridge collapse?
Shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, a Singaporean-flagged container vessel called Dali struck one of the 47-year-old bridge’s pillars, officials said.
The ship is about 984 feet long – almost the length of three football fields. At the time of the crash, the Dali weighed 95,000 gross tons – or 213 million pounds – and was chartered to carry cargo by Danish shipping giant Maersk.
There were 21 crew members and two pilots onboard the Dali cargo ship, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said Wednesday evening.
“Just minutes before (hitting) the bridge, there was a total blackout on the ship, meaning that the ship lost engine power and electrical power. It was a complete blackout,” said Clay Diamond, executive director and general counsel of the American Pilots Association.
The pilot then did “everything that he could have done” to slow the ship down and keep it from veering toward the bridge pillar, Diamond said.
Moments before the disaster, video footage shows the lights on the vessel flickering off and on – likely due to an emergency generator activating after the initial blackout, Diamond said. But the ship’s engines never turned on again.
Instead of crossing under the center of the bridge, where the clearance was highest, the ship drifted to the right and crashed into a pillar.
