I was reading where the ship had lost power several times leading up to this. Shouldn't the docking pilot have requested assistance from some tug boats or something? At least had one on standby. I don't understand how this happens.



CCTV and marine tracking data shows the container ship lost power for around 60 seconds about four minutes before it hit the bridge. It appeared to adjust its course and start smoking before impact.

The vessel's individual incident response service has been mobilised, Synergy added.

According to ship tracking website VesselFinder, Dali had been involved in a 2016 collision at the Port of Antwerp as it tried to leave the port.

It said the vessel had "substantial stern momentum" causing the collision with a stone wall of the quay.

The berth where the ship had been docked was "seriously damaged and closed for cargo handling operations due to safety reasons", the website said.

A maritime safety expert says the "most likely" cause of the crash was a failure in the ship's machinery.

David McFarlane, director of Maritime Risk and Safety Consultants Ltd, told Sky News: "The first thing that springs to my mind is: was there a sudden fault with the ship's engines or the steering gear? The other, of course, is: was there a navigational error?"

Mr McFarlane said a human error was less likely because of the number of people who would have been on duty.

He added: "There should be no room for one-person errors because one of the other people should jump in and say 'hang on...'.

"The most likely cause of this is a failure in machinery or steering gear, but we just won't know until the authorities have been on board. And even then, they're unlikely to say what's been going on for some considerable time."

NBC 5 said there was a construction crew on the bridge. SO terrible.

video on fox shows the lights going on and off a couple of times then black smoke like they were trying to reverse.

Back in 2001 4 loaded barges crashed into the bridge from the mainland to South Padre Island. The barges knocked out at least 1 section of the bridge sending 5 cars into the bay. 85 foot drop. 8 were killed. They have since put warning lights on the bridge to warn drivers in case of a similar incident.

First thing I thought of. Been over that bridge at least a dozen times.

Prayers for those involved.

the I40 bridge over the arkansas got taken out by barges some yrs. back, 2 or 3 vehicles drove off the edge after the collapse. couldn't see the missing section till too late.

Appears from reports that there were at least a few. I didn’t see any. You’d think that as slow as that thing was floating along, they would have radioed and shut down the bridge. I don’t know. Maybe panic took the place of clear thinking.

I’m sure the lawyers are already busy this morning. What a tragedy. I guess, though, it could have been much worse.

Horrible, just horrible !

I just read a few weeks back about the train bridge collapse, after being hit by a barge, that crashed the Amtrak Sunset Limited in 1993 with huge loss of life.

Train wreck

Could have been worse, imagine rush hour. I heard the bridge was closed to traffic before the ship hit it but not soon enough.

Possibly it was JUST closed but in the time lapse vids you can clearly see vehicles going both directions.

they also had a work crew on it.