Baltimore Bridge

[Jack_green]

Considering a good chunk of the bridge is intact I wonder if they will simply try and rebuild what was lost and repair anything that was strained on the intact session of the bridge or if they will have to tear it all down and rebuild it from both sides of the coast.

I guess the whole thing would need to be rebuilt. Specially with the poor engineering skills these days.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Whats a bridge in the west cost these days a few hundred mil?

40mil just to repaint/restore the Tyne Bridge.

But in the UK you need to factor in the back hander and government incapability costs.

 

[MadMossy]

They will spend weeks or months examining the existing bridge sections that are still standing and then spend another few months deciding on what to do, before eventually ripping it all down and building a new bridge at significant cost, and while they are at it, why build one bridge, when you can build 2 for twice the price.

 

[Jack_green]

But in the UK you need to factor in the back hander and government incapability costs.

Or get subtracted from the compensation payments to the injured. Isn't that they do in the UK give them £2000 pounds and pocket the rest.

 

[adidan]

On the news they say the same ship hit a pier a few years ago in Antwerp in calm waters in the daytime.

 

[adam cool dude]

On the news they say the same ship hit a pier a few years ago in Antwerp in calm waters in the daytime.

Pay peanuts get monkeys. Everything is a race to the bottom these days.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

On the news they say the same ship hit a pier a few years ago in Antwerp in calm waters in the daytime.

I wonder if it’s still the same Captain and senior officers.

 

[adidan]

Pay peanuts get monkeys. Everything is a race to the bottom these days.

I wonder if it’s still the same Captain and senior officers.

I'll be honest, I have no idea how common/uncommon these things are. In both cases though surely port authority pilots would have been onboard?

 

[Terminal_Boy]

I'll be honest, I have no idea how common/uncommon these things are. In both cases though surely port authority pilots would have been onboard?

The Pilot can only give the crew orders. If the crew don’t or can’t follow them (whether through incompetence or mechanical issues) despite the pilot yelling at them, there’s not a lot he/she can do about it.

 

[adidan]

The Pilot can only give the crew orders. If the crew don’t or can’t follow them (whether through incompetence or mechanical issues) despite the pilot yelling at them, there’s not a lot he/she can do about it.

A very fair point.

 

[MadMossy]

These ships are not "piloted" they are largely autonomous, the course is plotted and the ship navigates on its own, very little manual navigation is done, even less so on vessels this large.

If the ship lost power multiple times, navigation would have failed or the ability for the ship to correct its course would be why it hit the bridge.

Look at how large its turning circle is to leave the port, your talking almost a kilometre to just turn. So just a few seconds of navigation failure would have been enough considering its heading, speed and the sheer mass of the vessel.

 

[dowie]

This is a realtime video and starting a bit earlier than the second vid in OP. You can see the lights go off a few times before it hits the bridge. Still not sure I agree with the "aim for the bridge" - this could likely be the most awful coincidence of power going out and the rudder getting stuck.

EDIT: The smoke coming out of the funnels also only starts after the first lights out - backup generator coming online?

That does sound like the most plausible explanation tbh... some sort of electrical failure and the crew sadly losing control of the ship/rudder and unable to divert after regaining power.

Other explanations on twitter of course are:

Chinese hackers
Terrorists
Woke Diversity Hire - 'cos Baltimore etc..

 

[Minusorange]

• A massive search and rescue effort is now underway. Officials say at least seven people are missing
• Two have been rescued, one of whom is in a serious condition
• Sonar has detected multiple vehicles in the water

From the news conference on now, it's just a good job it happened at night and not at rush hour or in the day

 

[dowie]

These ships are not "piloted" they are largely autonomous, the course is plotted and the ship navigates on its own, very little manual navigation is done, even less so on vessels this large.

AFAIK they will still make use of pilots as the posters mentioned above, that they're largely autonomous doesn't necessarily negate having a little boat sent out with a local "pilot" to navigate in various ports or through specific narrow areas etc..

 

[Dis86]

These ships are not "piloted" they are largely autonomous, the course is plotted and the ship navigates on its own, very little manual navigation is done, even less so on vessels this large.

If the ship lost power multiple times, navigation would have failed or the ability for the ship to correct its course would be why it hit the bridge.

Look at how large its turning circle is to leave the port, your talking almost a kilometre to just turn. So just a few seconds of navigation failure would have been enough considering its heading, speed and the sheer mass of the vessel.

Where obstacles such as that bridge are involved they'd still likely have a pilot on board or, if a regular visitor then the crew may be allowed to pilot it themselves.

 

[Dis86]

The Pilot can only give the crew orders. If the crew don’t or can’t follow them (whether through incompetence or mechanical issues) despite the pilot yelling at them, there’s not a lot he/she can do about it.

Been part of an investigation because of precisely this. Pilot said steer starboard, crew went port.

 

[Freakbro]

Been part of an investigation because of precisely this. Pilot said steer starboard, crew went port.

Nothing to do with Blackvault was it?

I can never remember which way is port or starboard. Is there a handy way of remembering it?

 

[Scougar]

Woke up to this... not good. What a terrifying scenario to play out. This is normally stuff that we would see happen in China/Russia etc. What a mess.

1) Loss of life, vehicles in water
2) Port is basically closed I assume, so this will have knock on effects. (Obviously this isn't a 'sensitive' comment).

 

[MadMossy]

A crew member trying to pilot a vessel that's moving at 7-8 knots with a mass in excess of 250,000 tonnes, when power fails is basically like trying to push a 44 tonne container by hand. It ain't happening.

 

[jeffspuds]

been following this, no stopping that huge ship.

good job it was not in the day rush hour.

R.I.P to those and the missing which i imagine will end up being more.