Ship that struck Baltimore bridge lost power twice before crash, NTSB preliminary report finds

The cargo ship Dali that crashed into Baltimore’s Key Bridge in March had a pair of catastrophic electrical failures minutes before the crash and had experienced two blackouts a day earlier, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The cargo ship Dali that crashed into Baltimore’s Key Bridge in March had a pair of catastrophic electrical failures minutes before the crash and had experienced two blackouts a day earlier, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board. The 24-page report details investigators’ early factual findings on the March 26 disaster that took down the 1.6-mile long steel structure, killing six construction workers on the bridge and severing access to critical shipping routes in and out of the Port of Baltimore. According to the report, the two power outages occurred three ships’ lengths from the bridge and were triggered by the tripping of two critical circuit breakers, which caused several pumps required for the ship’s single propeller and its single rudder to stop working. The emergency generator was not configured to power the ship, the report said. The ship at the time of the failure was under the control of an apprentice pilot, who was accompanied by a senior pilot. When the pilots boarded, the captain reported the ship was in good working order, according to the report. NTSB investigators said the crewmembers tested negative for drugs and alcohol, and the fuel tested negative for contaminants three times. About 10 hours earlier, while the ship was still moored in the Port of Baltimore, it experienced two onboard blackouts, one caused by a crew error, according to the report.