- An initial report found that propulsion may have caused the catastrophe
- The crew warned that they ‘lost control’ of the vessel shortly before the smash
- The 1,000-ton vessel was piloted by a specialist crew trained to avoid impacts
The cargo ship that smashed into the Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore overnight was piloted by a specialized crew trained to avoid obstacles at ports, it has emerged.
The ship, a 948-foot-long DALI operated by Singaporean company Synergy Group, collided with the 1.2-mile bridge shortly after 1:26am as it departed the Port of Baltimore.
Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld told a Tuesday morning press conference that it appears none of the 22 crewmembers were injured, as he revealed it was being steered by the specialist pilots.
‘Pilots move ships in and out of the Port of Baltimore,’ he said at a press conference, noting that the specialist pilots depart the ships as soon as they are in open water.
Officials were quick to rule out the catastrophe as intentional or an act of terrorism, and an early Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) report found the container ship ‘lost propulsion’ as it was leaving port.
‘The vessel notified MD Department of Transportation (MDOT) that they had lost control of the vessel and an allision with the bridge was possible,’ the report said. ‘The vessel struck the bridge causing a complete collapse.’
The Dali container ship had undergone 27 inspections since 2015, and it had been found to have two ‘deficiencies’, according to a CNN review of records from the Electronic Quality Shipping Information System (Equasis).
Notably, this included a June 2023 inspection in San Antonio, Chile, where a deficiency was found in the ‘propulsion and auxiliary machinery’ – with propulsion faults also noted in the early CISA report.
The Dali was also involved in a 2016 incident at the Port of Antwerp. A review in November of that year in Antwerp, Belgium found another ‘deficiency’ in its ‘structural conditions.’
No deficiencies were found when the vessel was last inspected on September 9, 2023 by the US Coast Guard in New York.
All activity out of the Port of Baltimore, one of the most important trade hubs in North America, has ground to a halt.
