Did 'Black Box' Stop Recording Before Crash? - Baltimore Bridge | SY News Ep313
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This is 100 times better than anything I've seen on the news.
I took a dump this morning that was better than anything on the news😅 But I hear ya great video none the less✌
@@stripedassape8148 You have a way with words
100% agree!
I also agree 100%. eSysman's videos on this subject are the best I've seen.
boy you got that right
i learned more about the topic here than in the entire mainstreammedia
Great presentation sticks to the facts no fantasies as to what might have happened.
Yea this has been as good as it gets so far, especially when compared to the MSM reporting, they've done absolutely nothing but speculate since this happened.
Sure ….. 🤣🤣🤣
Since the first day alll I've heard from actual MSM is that it was an accident, with no sign of anything other than that.. maybe u weren't listening, or too busy on Trump Media or Truth Social.
He makes mainstream media look like babbling toddlers with damp diapers 🍼
Thank you for presenting unbiased factual content based on publicly available data.
Best detailed reporting I have heard….
Nobody has provided any real facts yet. They don't want you to really know what's going on. But, you can keep being stupid enough to believe them, if you want.
Factual? I got eyes 👀 silly. The large ship made a RUDDER CORRECTION to the right. WHO turned the wheel? You miss that?
@@HOTA_CHATON yeah im sure you know what youre talking about lay off the crack not everything is a conspiracy
Unbiased? lol I guess I'm not sure why this is titled, "Did Black Box Stop Recording Before Crash?"
I deeply appreciate your channel. I always recommend your videos because they are done with respect for the truth. That is a rare commodity nowadays. Thank you sincerely Long time viewer -
The same here.
I got much more useful information here than on mainstream news. Thanks for a good report.
eSysman, thank you for your factual commentary of this disaster. No lingering questions, no speculation, just the facts.
I work with VDRs as part of my day job (setting them up and integrating them into bridge systems). Every VDR I've worked with is primarily powered by AC power, but has its own internal battery. Even if the AC power is lost, the battery will keep the voice recording going for several hours until the battery runs out. However, as per the IMO regulations, that AC power should be backed by a UPS, which in turn is backed up to the emergency generator, which should start running within something like 45 seconds of main power failing. In short, the VDR recording should be continuous, along with most of the sensor data and the voice recording, right up until the coastguard pulled the data. This includes all navigation sensors (GPS, Gyro, AIS, etc...), engine performance data, steering data, IPMS data, status of watertight doors, fire alarm information, screen captures of radars and ECDIS, and voice/audio recordings of key portions of the ship as well as the ship's VHF radios. A pretty complete recording of the incident. For the reord, I have had one of the VDRs I configured examined as part of an investigation, and the national authority that examined the data did not have any issues with it.
thank you - there is something very suspicious about it cutting out for two minutes or so at just the critical time when we all need that sensor data - I feel we're being gaslighted yet again by our government, their departments, the CIA and their media - there are too many coincidences for this just to be an accident - and ships computer systems, I am reliably told, are not encrypted and can be very easily hacked!!!
Someone give this man a job at a major news organization! I want this kind of reporting on all the news
yes but the woke media doesn't
@@johnstreet797 you are correct
He didn't "report" anything. He offered explanations that make absolutely ZERO sense and contradict the information he puts out. But it's good to know that India is going to be paying for the new bridge, since it's their vessel and their crew.
That would be bad for business - viewers would become too educated
If he worked for them he wouldnt be allowed to. You do know who owns all the media right?
I listened to the NTSB press conference. My understanding of what they said was that the VDR did not stop recording, but that input from sensors temporarily stopped being recorded. (but audio continued)
indeed - so it did have continuous power, but someone switched the sensors off!!!!! A ships system is highly computerised but NOT encrypted - and like the power stations in the US, are very easy to hack, if one knows what they're doing!!!!!! Let that sink in to all the sheep that are bleating that this is just a bad accident and a series of very unfortunate coincidences!!!!
Great reporting thanks
Thank you. You juat told me more in just 8 minutes than I've learned from the media since the accident.
Thank you for being the voice of reason in this.
Thoughts & Prayers for the families that lost loved one that were working on the bridge.
I am so tired of hearing the frankly crazy thoughts from all the recent graduates of Twitter Merchant Marine and Bridge Building Academy. It's good to hear from someone who has actual seagoing experience in commercial vessels.
I saw one expert commenter was blaming the Baltimore mayor, the harbour master, the captain, the chief engineer, the Indian crew, the pilots (of course...), the tug captains, & finished his comment with:- ''The blame is a failure on multiple levels from both private and public sectors. Including the mayor and whoever regulates and enforces safety rules''.....😖🤯🤣
Its actually worse that Indian incompetence is responsible This will cost the US billions per day. Sue India
You must be a stranger to common sense and analytical thinking and analysis. But, in your defense, what we are being told contains very little of any of of that.
@@JeffreyCasserly Magat.
Whilst that's a fine opinion to hold, this isn't just a simple "ship accident" or "bridge collapse" issue. You have a port which is responsible for a LOT of economic movements. You have a bridge which is the conduit for the stream of transport of a lot of those economic movements. There was no risk mitigation in place to prevent that from happening - procedurally or in physical infrastructure. There is a failing there, at the very least. You have an long chain of deficiencies, being either willfully ignored out of either malice, greed or stupidity, which will now severely, deeply impact not only the economy of the State of Maryland, but the United States and beyond. You also have an exceedingly worthless, idiotic mayor who's like "no, don't question our policies, no don't show the bridge footage" adding fuel to the fire with his mishandling of his position. You have an absent, idiotic federal transport secty. who was more worried about his weak willed, political opinions, than shoring up and federally managing critical KEY infrastructure. A ship going into a bridge, a train going off the tracks and spilling chemicals, tax payer dollars being sent over seas or mismanaged in general, a wide open border being leveraged for political gain, an exceptionally rogue CIA, a weak, decimated military (who relies on allied private services to delegate out salvage operations because it no longer does it itself) ... I'm sorry, but all of that makes for a climate of huge, massive distrust. The U.S is responsible for being a world leader, yet one of its key ports was riddled with blatant weaknesses and that key port, out of ALL the ports in the US, just happened to have a whoops-a-daisy massive incident occur. If this happened in Russia or Ukraine, all the talking heads on TV would be screaming about how this could NEVER be an accident, it was somehow Russia's doing. Yet when the mirror is turned on the U.S, oh it's just a simple accident, whoops, nothing to see here, folks. Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug.
Awesome coverage, Captain 🤙🏽
excellent breakdown and excellent video footage and graphics . Very glad I clicked . cant get any of this info on the major news broadcasts
I agree with you. All bridge and emergency systems SHOULD have stayed on-line with no delay in switching over from main power to backup power. You always "'put" your batteries between your main and emergency power sources to guarantee that all major systems have full, un-interrupted power at all times !
Unless you want the design to hide some details..
Our systems on server farms always had critical warning, cooling and logging systems on a battery side circuit.
@@Plutogalaxywhy would you need to be there, its a common standard on such systems
My experience with backup systems is they fail when you need them.
@tedmoss that was mine until I practiced with them. After that, I didn't have any failures for 20 years
Very clear an concise thank you
The failure of so many systems concurrently resulting in the ship ramming a pylon and bringing the bridge down ..seems implausible
Yet it happened. Update your knowledge base
Yeah because there's never been a case of a poorly maintained container shop experiencing problems, ever...
... and no tug boats
@@grahamtaylor2282Take it from a local.. Tugs do not normally escort ships under the FSK bridge.
It does make one second guess everything. It’s also equally amazing how so many people are suddenly “Ship Experts”🧐
Agreed, this report is better than most news channels!
There has been so many sloppy accidents last 10-15 years, this same ship crashed in 2016 too...
And what is your point?
@@pvdppvdp6638 Incompetence.
@@pvdppvdp6638 probably that people are getting more and more negligent.
Indian crew. Have you seen the accidents involved with Indian crews operating equipment in North America? This isn't a one off
@@justadildeau how do you respect this man ....joker ? Just racist ? Or uneducated ?
Something you never mentioned, the captain can assume command at any time during an emergency. Ultimately if they are on duty, they are responsible for the ship, cargo, crew and liable for damages and injuries to other parties or property.
Best most concise reporting! Appreciated!!!
I’m happy that you’re sharing all this information. Your channel is awesome and you should be commended for your reporting. Much better than even our local national media. Thank you for sharing this with us and your standards are very high.
Other bridges in the area, and in other port cities, have cement obstructions in the water, blocking access to the bridge piers. In other words, if these obstructions had been in place, the ship would have hit them, and stopped before hitting the pier. Many engineers have expressed concern that there were no obstructions present.
They're called "dolphins", and FSK bridge has them. The ship missed them as it was still mostly centered in the channel when it passed them.
The power lines right next to the bridge has those as well.
@@butchs.4239but the OP spoke with such confidence...surely he must know that there were none.. 😂
@@butchs.4239 That why they had to make such a sharp turn in order to hit the Pier. Capite? Full rudder and full reverse
this was an accident waiting to happen same as it was in Tampa
International law. Captain is always ultimately responsible even when pilot is on board.
I don't know if its "International Law" but its Admiralty case law.
Responsible, yes. Giving directions and orders, no. Situational, as most things are!
If fault is to be pressed the Master and any key crew members (helmsman and engineering watch) will be held responsible as will the US Harbor Pilots onboard, not all countries will hold the Pilots responsible, the Evergiven incident is an example.
international law applies in international waters, no?
@@lachlanhudson7404 The Master may over rule the pilot's directions, however they had better have very good reason to do so.
Great job and very informative presentation. Thank you! 🚢🌉🆘
Excellent reporting with actual detail. Truly informative to answer all Q. Thank you so much for your wonderful job.
Thank you for doing your part to keep things sane!
Fyi, the power sources for the VDR are 1. Emergency switchboard AC power. 2. Internal UPS battery pack in the VDR, as depicted in this video. The internal battery is replaced every few years and inspected/tested at the annual VDR performance test. When AC power is lost, the VDR continues on it's internal battery pack but records AUDIO ONLY (mics and Vhf radio). Other sensors are not recorded. If AC power from ESB is resumed, the VDR resumes normal operation. If not, it continues for exactly 2 hours and then shuts down. So, the information already released suggests that VDR was working normal.
What???
well if that's true - how very convenient - one would have thought the importance of the black box recorder - VDR would mean that there is absolutely full guaranteed electricity as all times to enable all sensors and audio to function properly - based on the fact that in an emergency and /or collision there's a real chance of some form of power being cut - but the system wouldn't have been set up so that the VDR wouldn't record all the major and important sensors that tells us really what's going on at a very detailed level - that's the whole point of black box recorders!!!!!
Thanks for the video. Good information. So much better than the legacy media coverage.
Thanks for keeping it real!
Captain buddy told me this. Steering hydraulics are powered by the generator. If the power goes out, NO STEERING. The smoke from the stack is due to FULL REVERSE. But the ship weighs way too much for it to come to a stop in that short a distance. He also mentioned that single screw ships do not reverse in a straight line. The full reverse could have turned to bow straight into the tower. Also, the anchors need a lot of scope before they grab. There wasn't enough time for that. Take it for what it's worth.
I agree. I know many a Merchant Marine... The problem isn't who's to blame . Fix the problem Shit happens! As just a boater for many years, many a time I was shoved into a dock even with an engine. Ships like trains take a very long time to stop!
the restart after the blackout would smoke badly due to no engine room fans and turbochargers ( probably 3) not up to speed. There would be auxiliary electric blowers if they had power. On standby the switchboard would be split, so it should not be possible to lose all power to both sides with a generator powering each side.
The emergency generator should kick in immediately, and you get amongst others steering from one steering gear. Strange that the VDR failed, it gets power from the emcy batteries and internal batteries, so both must have been non functional…
@@fulstad Hard to believe that all those systems failed at the same time. Why would Main quit when Generator quit? And then backup generator and batteries fail? Maybe we'll find out.
My buddy out here in SF works on a Pilot Boat. I'll keen bugging him for information.
I have had this happen to me while maneuvering out of port in San Juan. Lost the ships service generators and that took out the main engines. Emergency diesel generator came back on line and it took about a half an hour to get the generators and engine back on line. This was a 500 foot ship and thankfully we were still using Moran’s tugs to guide the ship. One of the service diesel generators oversped due to a fuel control issue and it took the entire ship down.
I agree. I know many a Merchant Marine... The problem isn't who's to blame . Fix the problem Shit happens!
and don't tell me, your black box also cut out for the two crucial minutes when we all need to know exactly what occurred!!!!
As always, a great report from eSysman Super Yachts videos. Thanks for sharing your info. good job!
Thanks for a very well rounded report based off of the facts/reports and experience you have. I found it to be quite unbiased which is useful when just trying to understand what happened. Thanks you 😊
What no one is talking about is the 35kt winds that night. They were blowing in the direction of the turn. The beam of a big container ship like that is the biggest sail out there. The soft mud on the bottom of the Chesapeake would have not allowed the anchor to be effective. That was a futile effort. A last minute ditch effort after all else failed. There probably wasn’t enough time for much chain to pay out, explaining the up/down anchor. The pilot would have know that so that wouldn’t have been his first choice. There was no conspiracy here. This is just a series of unfortunate events that compounded to create a tragedy. Had if happened just six hours later, it would have been rush hour traffic and that bridge would have been full of cars.
Wow, 35 knots is blowing. You are right. Certainly would explain the “turn” into the bridge. That side profile is massive.
It's a huge ship. Very heavy. Would 35kt winds even do anything to it?
@@trucid2 yes, a lot can happen. As he wrote the while hull and containers works as a big sail. There is a reason why those big vessel needs more tugs when it's windy :)
Ok, thats slam dunk obvious thing that should be reported.. Leaving that out is like saying Kennedy collapsed in his car while in Dallas without telling there were shots fired.
Apparently the anchor did drop and was dragging because NTSB data shows a 2 knot drop in speed after the command to drop port anchor. Dropping the anchor was a fatal mistake. If it is dragging bottom, it has FAR MORE effect than the rudder and it is anybody's guess the direction a ship will turn when an anchor from the bow is dropped while underway.
Good information
THANKS ESYSMAN,🤗 FOR GIVING US THE MOST ACCURATE STORY AS POSSIBLE NOW 🧐💚💚💚
There seem to be a lot of "shore captains" who think they know best. Also, totally unrelated to the war in Ukraine. Thanks for the unbiased report.
Ok I have a question that needs answering. At the time of black out the ship was going straight. If the rudder is in the neutral position why did the ship turn so quickly into the bridge. wouldn't it just drift under in the same direction it was going. I don't understand why it turned so quickly. doen't seem right to me
Yes it would, which is the big question, how was the ruter turned after the "accident" (not enough evidence to prove it was an accident)
Potholes ?
there could be a number of reasons for this. You assume the rudder was in midships position at the time of the blackout, it might not have been. If it were slightly over to starboard then it would have remained at that angle when the blackout occurred.. the speed of the vessel versus the dredging of the channel versus the under-keel clearance also has to be looked at closely. When there is not much water between the keel and the seabed and there is too much headway something called "ship squat" comes into effect, and along with dredged channels and pressure systems that build up these all play a role and could have aided in the development of the accident.. There are a lot of factors to consider in this tragic accident
Wind
This is based on my experience, so may not be applicable to every scenario. I've spent quite a few hours on Sea And Anchor Detail in my younger days in the Navy, and I was stationed in Aft Steering. When going into and out of ports, there are a lot of minor adjustments made with the rudder to keep the ship on track and in the channel. Assuming that the rudder was centered when they lost power is a bad place to start from, IMO. As far as drifting on the same course if the rudder was neutral - even without propulsion, winds and currents can affect the actual course the ship is on.
Voyage Data Recorders have their battery checked annually. The battery provides uninterupted power to the VDR. Any VDR problem should cause an alarm in the vessel's Alarm and Monitoring System. Steering systems are required to be backed up by emergency power.
Emergency power doesn’t work when you lose the switchboard…
@allangibson8494 Only partially correct. It is lost until the emergency generator starts and powers the emergency switchboard. Half of the vessel's steering must be powered by an emergency fed source, whether that is the e-gen or batteries. This looked like the e-gen failed shortly after starting. Makes me wonder what routine testing they had been doing if the e-gen could fail so quickly in an emergency.
Emergency generator should be tested at least weekly. Same with DC emergency batteries for the bridge equipment.
Thanks for the updates
Love your accurate broadcasting, the good news is with the ship on the surface it shouldn't take too long before experts will be able to discover exactly what went wrong here. So sad for those poor souls and there loved ones, could have been sooooo much worse.
The pilot is NOT in command of the ship whilst onboard. The Captain is ALWAYS in command, even with Pilot onboard. The only place in the world where this is not the case is the Panama Canal - there the Pilot takes over command when he comes onboard and he stays in command for the entire transit.
100% CORRECT
Actualy the pilot is in operative command. The Captain has overall command of the ship, like he always has, even when not on watch.
Pilot does not have any command, nor the conn, during pilotage technically Master has the conn under pilots advice.
@@steenjacobsen1474 No, if the Captain is not on the bridge (he would have been, in Baltimore) then the OOW is just that - in command. Taking the Pilot’s advice. But it remains advice only.
Thank you for the update. Good to go to an authoritative source for the information
Excellent update 💯
An absolutely proffessional report. Unbiased. Objective. The VDR losing power is a serious failure. There is no excuse for that! That kind of device has an UPS, precisely so that everything is recorded no matter what! As for the anchor: at such a high speed the anchor must have been bouncing of the seabed. It could never possibly get a sustainable grip on the bottom, and even if it could, as the Bosun tightens the brake, its pads would have been burnt out very very quickly. I can assure anyone that only a highly experienced sailor manning the Anchor Winch Brake can achieve the slightest success, being the most likely outcome the complete destruction of the brake system. Secondly, the chain might have snapped, and thus you can see it "up and down" from the hawser. In any case, dropping the anchor, expecting a positive result was hopefull yet correct, but akin to trying to stop your car by opening the door and using your shoe to stop it....
A VDR only records bridge audio while on UPS. The fact that it is only recording audio suggests that both Main and Emergency power were off line.
The plume of smoke is from the air start system trying to start the engines.
Some friends of mine who work on ships told me that the lights run on generators because the propellers are not turning Enough RPMs can you tell me in your opinion if this is true but
Good luck!💕🍀
Great video, quick & precise 💪🏽
Thanks for another informative video. The big elephant in the room question is: Why weren’t there any tug boats in operation in this port? Expect this to be the number one recommendation to come out of this investigation.
Yup but to reduce costs tugs are an expensive option nowadays.. Used to be obligatory a decade ago .. Safety umm who cares let industry regulate itself. A behemoth like this, with what will prove to be faulty maintenance, can cause major destruction..
@@carlosoruna7174There's not enough tugs to escort every ship in and out. And its just generally not done.
The Chesapeake bay is the longest piloted waterway in the world. There are 2 other bridges to navigate en route to the sea. Its impossible to have enough tugs to escort the 32 ships at any given time on the Chesapeake. Tugs are used in Baltimore to assist the ship off of its berth at the Port of Baltimore and to assist it in making a very tight turn to the main channel. This accident was a freak occurance. VERY RARE. impossibly rare. Once in a lifetime levels of rare. You cant have 60+ tugs at the ready, as well as 64 pilots onboard these ships at any given time. Trust me, I'm from Baltimore, I grew up on the Bay. My grandfather was a Chesapeake Bay pilot, served in the USCG, taught me everything I know about seamanship, losing the Key bridge is an absolute disaster. Never thought I'd cry over a bridge but well, there I was bawling like a baby watching it come down. But what people who keep asking for tugs are forgetting is that there's a cost associated with these tugs. And a cost to use these tugs for 8+ hours, along with the cost of the pilots, and the cost of operating each ship slowly enough in the Chesapeake because it is so difficult... the cost of a new car would skyrocket past the cost of inflation, just due to how expensive it would be to operate the cargo ships on the Chesapeake and those ships would no longer go to Baltimore. That would then have a cost to the Port of Baltimore, the loss of jobs from processing all of these ships, all of those tugs that would be purchased to escort these cargo ships would be sitting around with no ships to escort and thus not making money.
Thank you so much for your brilliant professional Mariner 😊 reporing and overview 😊 you and ( Sal) what going on with shipping video series. The Media MUST start listening to YOU my friend 😊 And interview your platform 😊 you do a expert job on your size up and as thing progrogess time line wise. Outstanding job of TRUTH and explanation for what happened. 😊❤😊
Thank you for your presentation.
Thank you, always the best information first.
Why the ship did not keep going straight forward ? What made it to swing to the right ?
Seriously??? Are you not paying attention?
@@pfitz4881the nutters ask a lot of questions that have been answered repeatedly, then ignore the explanation because their attention span is too short
@@dubsessed9790Thank you. So glad there is another adult on the planet
Just answer the question guys no need to be condescending
@@TheThinker43 The anchor they dropped, think about it as if you're running and then grabbing a pole sticking out of the ground with your hand you no longer go straight but veer off, Same thing.
Thanks for sharing your extensive marine knowledge and trying to bring clarity to such tragic incidents and not only focusing on your channels focus area, true pioneer
Thank you Sir
Great breakdown! Thanks for sharing! 👍👍
Thank you for getting out CLEAN information
I don’t think your comment on the local pilot/captain is accurate. The captain is still in charge of the vessel even if pilots are on board. Check out this debate about the Ever Given and the Suez Canal grounding. The bridge recorder should have a battery backup in the event of a power failure.
Unbelievable that a data recorder would not have its own power supply.
@@georgiarasmussen8343it does, there was just a hiccup transferring to the onboard power
@@Simon-ho6ly there should be no hiccup or lost data. These are very reliable and tested systems. There should be zero interruption.
@@thereissomecoolstuff In a perfect world you could be right about that, but we do not live in a perfect world. I'm sure that the final report will address that, so we will have to wait. Accidents like this are rare in the US.
@@juju-xx5xn I completely agree. I’m happy to wait for the report. There should be a preliminary report before to long. The voice recorder transcript should be released soon as well.
Excellent objective analysis of the incident. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the informed opinions.
Anchor is not brake. It holds once the ship is stopped.
@@jhb9746anchors are not meant to slow a ship down but can slow a ship in an emergency situation but there is massive risk of damaging the ship and windlass and associated stuff in the attempt... dropping an anchor to slow down is something you do in basically an emergency only
Anchors@jhb9746 Anchors are not designed to stop a ship, their designed to hold the ship. If that anchor were to grab ahold while that ship was moving at a higher speed than dead slow possibly, something would break like a weak link.
Obviously an anchor's primary purpose isn't to be used as a brake, but in an emergency they can be used as one. You can find other videos showing drifting ships dropping anchor to slow the ship.
It was used as a brake in the Film Battleship (2012) when fighting the Aliens so it must be True. 😂
@@rock0122 Yes, and in Speed 2 to there was also a manually operated emergency bow thruster, that the hero used to turn the ship with hand power, why didn't Dali crew do that! Surely if it is in a film it must be true in real life 🙂
Mighty strange how we all watched as the lights came back on engine smoke from funnels and the damn ship not drifting right but making a quick right turn directly into the bridge support.
I thought that was a pretty sharp turn to the right also, very strange. And for a ship this loaded down seems off JMO
Wind
The less you know, the more you speculate
It's worth noting that the camera that caught the accident is not looking straight down the channel - it's offset to the left of the channel (looking through the camera). That could play a role in making the turn look more sharp than it was. Based on the track data, it looks more to me like a combination of winds, current and/or (possibly) drift from torque from the propeller (the MV Dali has one shaft/propeller). Fully loaded with containers, the MV Dali has a significant sail area port and starboard, and it would not take much wind to add some drift, especially when she was doing around 8 knots. I don't know what the winds were at that time nor the direction they were blowing, but looking at NOAA data last night for the preceding 24 hours showed winds from around 2 knots to 7 knots.
15 years professional dog walker and 4 years shopping cart retriever and 6 months door dasher here. This is an excellent breakdown, could not have done any better myself.
Thank you for reporting facts. Excellent work.
I have a question.....If the port side anchor was dropped 1) did it Affect the ships direction? and 2) if the port anchor was dropped wouldn't the ship turn towards the port side?
I don't know why but something doesn't feel right about the entire situation.
Nicely done. Thanks for noticing the plume of smoke coming from the vessel's engines just before impact. There does not seem to have been enough time to even get water flowing towards the rudder, so it was almost without effect.
Good factual stuff as always.
Good to hear from someone that knows what is what.
I guess once it lost power it turned hard starboard into the bridge. Intentional or not it definitely turned hard or was forced to turn due to current.
Current and/or wind can easily affect it. It’s a huge “sail” with all the flat containers.
Power interruption occured after setting the rudder to starboard. Pay attention.
Look at the smoke plume as they tried to restart the generators and engines. There was a significant northerly wind. Current is generally parallel to the channel here.
I check the tide charts for that day. It was the end of an outgoing tide less than an hour Before low tide.
It looks like a hard turn for the camera angle but it was only a few degrees on vessel tracker.
Great reporting as usual and this collision reminds me of past reports where a yacht drifted into a structure in St. Maarten in the Caribbean.
Considering the risks involved, I find it incredible that there were no tug boats escorting this huge vessel out of port. After all even at normal course it had to pass between the two pillars which are relatively close. Was the collision scenario never considered? Thanks for your knowledge.
47 years it worked fine
@@g.t.richardson6311 Right?? Mechanical failures, and accidents happen
@@pfitz4881 that was in response to a comment that the “pillars were too close Together” Ok
It's not the tugs' job to babysit every ship that comes and goes out of the harbor, smh. Too expensive.
@@rebelfighter5249 bingo thanks
Great coverage, we need big cranes Barges. and a shit load of divers and cutting equipment get the main channel opened up so Baltimore port does not grind to a halt! The corps of engineers have got their work cut out, good luck chaps and chappesses
Ya , they are on their way, figure tomorrow they start, will set up lights as well for 24 hr a day operations, first order is clear the debris to open the channel then get the ship out of there.. clean up can be as fast as a week to open the channel unless they get anal about who gets the glory and leads..
Try pulling iron with tugs
@@carlosoruna7174 It is not quite so simple. There are hazardous materials in some of the containers and some containers have spilled some into the water plus the bridge superstructure trapping the ship as well as on the bottom. As of right now, 3/28/24, 8:15 pm CDT, recovery of bodies is still underway.
Good report captain , good honest channel .
The tide was still going out plus an easterly wind pushing on a massive superstructure there is a lot of weight to slow down, it needs Kilometers not meters to stop. In my experience with the Navy, a ship of this size and narrow track should have Tugs attached on slack lines in case of engine failure.
Landlubber here. Question: Would it help if the tugboats were tethered to the ship while in harbor. Would this have made any difference in the outcome in this case? Could the tugboats change the course of the ship or help stop it? Thanks for your insightful reporting in this matter.
Yes it would of. If the tugs hadn't cast off before passing the bridge this wouldn't of happened. Tugs are bulit with the ability to shove around ships far larger than them.
They used the tugs half the way to the bridge. It would have cost more to use them the additional distance so they stopped. Now we can all appreciate the cost savings... right?
Landlubber too, except for 8 years offshore drilling, moved a few semi-submersibles, even into harbors; best of my knowledge is that tug boats do not tether as you say, which I guess you mean attached by some means, but rather they simply push the larger vessel, so yes, that would certainly made a huge difference. I expect all harbor masters around the world are now seriously reviewing the standard operating plans in force, especially those with BRIDGES, but hey, it's only 2024, mankind is getting smarter by the day.
@@johngreydanus2033 if just talking about being able to move and no fine control. A tug with a displacement of 705 tons has plenty of power to move a vessel with a displacement of 9,600 tons.
Tugboats "can" help, however with a ship travelling at 8 knots, all a tug could possibly do to help this situation would be to nudge the ship in hopes of changing its course in time. Its still very possible that even with 2 tugs accompanying this ship, it may not be enough to change the ship's course in time. 2 tugs would not be able to stop this ship given the speed of the ship, this would cause the tugs to capsize. I know some youtubers are saying that tugs could have helped, and its possible that they could have helped. The problem being is that the Patapsco river and Chesapeake bay are the largest piloted waterway in the world. The topography of the Chesapeake is incredibly complex and the shipping channel the entire way through the Chesapeake is very precise to have to navigate through (sandbars are everywhere, its not an easy channel to navigate by any means) There are 2 other bridges prior to the mouth of the Chesapeake to navigate under prior to the pilot leaving the vessel. So using the "tugs can prevent this" theory, it would take 2 tugs to accompany every commercial vessel over X tons 8+ hours along the entire Chesapeake bay on the VERY RARE chance that this happens again. Considering how much commercial traffic is in the Chesapeake on any given day (the Port of Baltimore processes 16 ships a day, and then there is also the cruise port, so if the port turns over all of these ships every day, and is bringing in replacement ships (excluding the cruise ships because only 2 cruise ships visit the port of baltimore in a given week) that's 34 potential trips that would require 2 tugs each, requiring Baltimore to have 34 tugs whose sole purpose is ship escort. Now, lets have a few backup tugs in case any of this fleet of tugs has any mechanical issues. Plus the need for tugs in the Baltimore harbor to assist with other smaller ships who might not be travelling the entire Chesapeake bay.... its too many tugs for the port of Baltimore to maintain. Tugs assist in maneuvering ships short distances, and only long distances in emergency scenarios. In my opinion, its just not feasable to use tugs like this. In my opinion, a better way to help prevent something like this would be an engineering fix. Use shoals or sandbars near the pylons and slightly alter the shipping channel to allow for a combination of concrete "dolphins" and shoals to protect bridges in this area. Tugs can be used to maneuver the ships from the port into the shipping lane (like they do currently) a little more to make sure they're in the center of the channel to avoid the shoals, and then the port can maintain the shoals with dredged material periodically.
Full-speed astern would also have produced the smoke and reversing the prop would have slued the ship Stb
What do you mean in terms for someone who doesn’t know anything about big shipping vessels?
You'd need to know the stack/exhaust arrangement, to know if the main engine was running. If the main engine did shut down, (I don't believe it did) at any point in this incidents timeframe, there's no way there was enough time (not even close) to restart it at all before it hit the bridge. I firmly believe that this ship had propulsion and rudder the whole time in order to pull off the maneuvers it did going into the bridge.
@@andrewdamico9632 Right?? Armchair boatmen. Theory and conjecture
@@andrewdamico9632 when a single screw (fixed pitch prop) vessel goes astern the propeller turns counter-clockwise. This acts like a giant paddle wheel (called transverse thrust) which causes the stern to go to port and hence the bow to stbd
@@uavertical9076 I have worked on most large thrust blocks in service
Excellent report.
Thanks for bringing these regular and unbiased updates! Hopefully this will help to balance out (a bit) all the obvious nonsense widely spread on social media.
Why is this presenter not working for a major independent news network? Excellent factual content and no speculation or opinion.
He would be under contract most likely and not have his own voice.
Independent? Someone or some company always own any media company. By definition, no media is independent. Much better people like him use KZhead instead.
@@brandonadams7837 Being a KZheadr is better but it's also not considered being independent. Too many different rules exist for different content creators to truly be independent. They rely on KZhead to dripfeed new viewers and if the content creator isn't pumping out "enough" then their income gets scaled down. Some content creators don't check the "withheld-comments" page and when they do they click away thousands of valid comments with "remove-all", which got flagged by KZhead for no reason. They rely on a constant overlord supplying them.
@@brandonadams7837 I was gonna say the same. Once you get hired (I guess YT would technically be "hiring" but not in the same way), you are speaking thru the boss, not independently. Considering the crap out anymore, it's so hard to get proper news😔🙄 Imagine what we're not hearing about...
The only question many people have is "WHY would the SHIP turned more to the Right toward the Bridge Post soon after the Ship Lost Power????". If the ship had kept the same path/direction after power lost, it would not have hit the bridge post and cause collapse. Similarly, if my car is moving in a straight line with steering wheel pointing straight ahead and I turn off the ignition, the vehicle would just turn LEFT nor RIGHT a few seconds later Unless the Road is Uneven toward one side of the road etc... It is all suspicious and no reasonable justification. In addition, if the Anchor is located on the Port side (Left side) of the Bow, the dropping momentum and Weight of the anchor into the water would have "Pull" the vessel the Left, instead the vessel actually Turned to the Right toward the foundation of the Bridge. As if the Vessel was Steered toward Right during the last few seconds of power lost.
Wind. There was a healthy wind blowing into the side of the ship and that ship was stacked high with containers turning the whole thing into a giant sail once the power was lost, pushing it sideways out of the channel and into the bridge supports.
Your car wouldn't just go straight on if the road had a camber (which isn't always noticeable). Without any steering input it would start to veer to the left or right pretty quickly. I imagine the turning circle on this ship is pretty large - maybe the rudder was turned in anticipation that the turn would be a gradual one going under and past the bridge. Is it feasible the sudden lack of power and slowing speed increased the turn rate? I'm not a mariner so what do I know? Maybe there's someone here who's actually worked on a container ship that can correct me?
@@damot1051 Just put in Container Ship crew right here on KZhead and get first hand Vlog's
There is a channel feeding in to the harbor right where the ship turned. Flowing water hitting the broadside of a ship makes it turn.
Yeah, but like you mentioned, and uneven road in a car is different if you have wind and current, but yeah, hard right turn seems suspicious. Everybody’s looking at this could be just smoke and mirrors, but it does have an economical affect and shipping
okyour explanation is very helpful and explains things that i obseverd on footage and repots on the vdr being switched off. i get if a power drop occurs theres the time it takes to switch to backup systems. so i get that. and the capt question has really hAd me wondering so thanks for that explanation as well. i suppose any of us can do at this point is wait and see what comes from the investigation.
Thanks for your very logical sounding video. Very good
I think the important points over the VDR are that the VDR continuously recorded bridge audio throughout the incident, but there were interruptions in the data recording. Presumably the systems that normally send that data were unpowered. This loss of data, according to the NTSB's timestamps, was about 1m3s, corresponding to the time between the blackout starting and the emergency generator coming up.
Some friends of mine who work on ships told me that the lights run on generators because the propellers are not turning Enough RPMs can you tell me in your opinion if this is true but
@@michaelspampanato There are several sources of power, and also several concentration points for the distribution of power from those sources to the systems that need it. The principal sources of power are an alternator attached to the propeller shaft (thus driven by the main engine), the auxiliary engines (which do nothing but generate power), the emergency backup generator (which is isolated to a set of vital systems), and a battery bank. Some specific devices have their own internal batteries, including emergency lighting and the VDR, so they can continue to work even when all other power is lost. Emergency lighting is very localised and covers only truly vital areas. The usual cause of ship-wide blackouts is not when when power *sources* fail but the power *distribution network*. Power cables and suchlike are duplicated port and starboard, so a single failure should not completely blackout the ship, but might knock out some specific systems temporarily. If the main circuit breakers open, it doesn't matter how many operational power *sources* you have, power simply cannot get from them to the systems. This has cascading effects, because both the main and auxiliary engines need power to operate their fuel and cooling systems, so a blackout will shut both of them down - leaving only the batteries and the emergency generator. The emergency generator is capable of operating the rudder, most of the ship's lighting, and the vital bridge systems. It can also supply enough power to get an auxiliary engine restarted. This power is supplied through an "emergency power distributor" which is deliberately limited in scope to minimise the number of things that can go wrong with it. In principle, it should have been enough for the Dali to steer through the arch of the bridge, with the auxiliary and then main engines being brought back up after it passed through. Evidently something went wrong with that "Plan B", and much of the investigation will focus on precisely what did.
Keep up the good work with this. FYI. The battery backup you mentioned is called a UPS. Uninterruptible power supply.
actually not quite, Battery backup is something that is actively or automatically switched to and may mean a power blip.. a UPS is something that switches in with no interruption, both have their place and their use
They should have had steering control /rudder control with the backup generator and batteries, that's what they are for, and you can clearly see that the ship doesn't make it's turn into the pylon until the backup lights are on. Why did the ship turn towards the pylon only AFTER the lights come back on and not before? It wasn't the anchor which would have swung the ship the other way and maybe it did right at the very end. Furthermore, since they were moving forward fairly fast and hadn't restarted the engine, they can't blame the turn towards the pylon on going full astern. On top of that, the Wind isn't blowing the front end around before the lights come back on either. It sure looks like it's under Rudder control when it makes the turn towards the pylon to me, especially from the way the back end of the ship sweeps. They make it look like it wasn't that sharp of a turn on the map type illustration, but we all see that it takes a fairly sharp turn for a ship that size. At the start of the video we are not quite a full side but it's close, by the end the ship is pointed straight at the camera. That's a sharp turn for such a short time and doesn't really jive with the illustration they keep showing which makes it look like it never did take a very sharp turn. But who are you going to believe? You can SEE it in the video. That was at a minimum a thirty degree turn and the illustration is only showing at most a 15 degree turn. Here is a question, what position is the rudder currently in? I ask because it sure looked like the rudder was turned after the lights came back on and that is why it turned right into the pylon. What else would explain the turn? It's Not the Wind, which didn't blow the ship around while the lights were off. It wasn't the anchor, which would have pulled it the other way and it wasn't going full astern which a bunch of people said it likely was. So what was it that made the ship turn at exactly the right moment to slam directly into the pylon?
VHF is the standard mode of marine communication. VHF stands for Very High Frequency. That is the radio that the Pilot and tugs use.
If you look at the smoke the wind was blowing hard. Take the forward momentum and a strong cross wind on a loaded cargo ship could have push it into the direction of the bridge. Imo
Black box stopped? Sounds sus to me.
Why would he even put that on the thumbnail for this vid?? Theory and conjecture
@@pfitz4881 for clicks. and to explain to the paranoid that it switched quite quickly.
@@pfitz4881 With the lack of provable cause, theory and conjecture will always make headlines first. It’s what humans do. If I run into a crowd and yell “fire’, everyone within earshot will most likely believe me without proof, investigation or even smelling smoke. It’s human self-preservation instinct to believe the worst first until facts are revealed. In these times of rumors of war, mankind is destroying its own so it’s no surprise that conspiracies took immediate flight.
@@pfitz4881clicks clicks clicks
The black box didn’t stop - it lost sensor feeds but audio recording continued…
Good info…as always…thank you
Thank you
You mentioned the Pilots being in charge of the ship? Usually the Pilot is onboard as a local knowledge expert and his relationship to the Commanding Officer is of an advisory capacity. The Master remains in command of the ship throughout. I believe however the Panama Canal does alter this relationship and I'm not sure about Baltimore. Master/Pilot relationship always brings about lively discussion.
On the Chesapeake, the pilots are in command of the vessel. They dont "advise" on the Chesapeake because of how difficult the Chesapeake is to navigate. Much like the Panama Canal. In the Chesapeake there are sandbars everywhere and that shipping channel must be navigated very precisely. Not saying that a ship's master cant handle a precise navigation, but to ensure every ship is navigated precisely, the pilot takes command of the ship during the 8 hour voyage down the Chesapeake. In smaller or less precise waterways, the pilot may be more of an advisor due to the ship's master knowing more than the pilot. But on the Chesapeake, the pilot knows much more than the ships master and likely has more experience on the water.
...with all the inertia in that beast, steerage should have not been affected, unless there was zero rudder angle available by a mechanical rudder
Theory and conjecture
Wind
Factual rather than hypothetical. I've never been interested in yachts/boats, but discovered your channel by chance a couple of months ago. Now l'm an avid viewer. Cheers!
Fact based is so rare, and almost politics free.
My understanding is that this video is simply wrong at 2:08 when it states 'the pilot has authority over the captain'. Yes the captain may delegate the con to the pilot in the same way as he might delegate it to one of his own junior officers, but he is still in charge and may overrule the pilot or take the con back at any time. In this case it seems likely that any fault lies in the maintenance, or perhaps the design, of the ship and it would be hard to hold a pilot responsible for that!
The morning of this incident, i suggested that any recording or data logging equipment may mysteriously malfunction. Low and behold, 2 minutes of data lost but oh, its all explainable. Uh huh. And, its been suggested that we will probably get a transcript of radio communications and not the actual recording. On every crash scene I have been involved in, authorities act swiftly to question and collect information to help preserve the facts but in this case, they do their interviews days later giving time to re-imagine / re-script the story in one way or another. Nothing to see here folks, move along.
minutes? seconds
@@tsm688 So black boxes are designed not to fail yet they admit it did and you actually believe their time count? Nothing to see here. I bet you believed the Juice smoleet story too.
The bridge audio recording continued according to the NTSB - it was the external sensor feeds that cut out with the ships power.
@@allangibson8494 Like always, different "official" reports have different "official" accounts. (Which is in part what i was trying to suggest) There is the actual truth and then there is everything else. Lets not forget a perfect example..... remember the "Factual reporting" on the jussie smollett attack and how legacy media covered that and absolutely vilified anyone that posed any questions contrary to their narrative? This early in the story, ask questions and be skeptical of everything you hear. (Unless you still believe Jussie. (And all of the other crap that you have been fed over the years.
The NTSB has already interviewed the MV Dali's Captain, Mate, Chief Engineer and one other engineer as of yesterday, 3/28/2024. So the interviews took place on either 3/27/2024 or 3/28/2024 - hardly days later.
CORRECTION! I've been a follower for a few years. Really since Covid hit and I retired from the Merchant Marine. When a local Pilot comes onboard, they are advisors, but the Captain remains in command of the ship. The Pilot DOES NOT have authority over the Captain. I've seen the Captain relieve a couple Pilots if they were doing something the Captain didn't like. But, the Pilot will act like the Captain, giving helm and engine orders, but the Captain is still in command of his vessel. There are only a few exceptions to this ie. when the vessel is entering or leaving a drydock, when transiting the Suez Canal and I believe when transiting the Panama Canal. Love the channel, especially when we were hunting down Russian yachts.
The only place in the world I know about where the pilot is responsible is in the Panama Canal, not so in the Suez Canal. I have been to dry docks with ships many times as a captain and as a pilot, not one single time has the pilot been in command. In practice they do the job but the captain is responsible for his vessel.
@@JonasAlexanderson Huh! I guess the answer to that exam question was; D. None of the above. Back in the day, I seem to remember an exam question that had 3 special areas that the Captain isn't in command. But I'll defer to your actual experience. I max'd out as Chief Mate for 13 years. Went in and out of dry docks multiple times, but not on the bridge. Fair Winds,
@@MrMinnesotaMac I retired two years ago after 25 years as a ship pilot. Before that ten years as captain world wide. I now work a little bit on cruise ships as an activity guide (kayak guide) and it is now 47 years working on ships!