London Maritime Academy is a trade name for London Premier Group
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12/16/2025, 5:55:45 PM
The investigation report concluded that the Singapore-flagged containership Dali lost propulsion and steering due to a loss of electrical power, leading to its collision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Particularly, the accident occurred at 1:29 a.m. on March 26, 2024, when a 984-foot containership leaving Baltimore Harbour experienced a blackout while passing under a bridge, leading to a total loss of propulsion and steering due to disabled electrical systems.
The crew had a limited time to restore power to the ship before it collided with Pier 17, which supports the bridge’s central span.
A significant chunk of the Francis Scott Key Bridge fell into the river after the hit. The ship's bow and forward container bays were hit by parts of the pier, highway deck, and steel truss spans.
Moreover, one inspector and a seven-person road maintenance crew were working on the bridge at the time of the crash. The fall claimed the lives of six highway workers.
The inspector escaped unharmed, but one employee survived with severe injuries. One of the twenty-three passengers on board the Dali suffered a minor injury.
According to the final estimate, cargo damage was still unknown, but containership damage topped $18 million. At the time of reporting, the bridge's replacement costs were likewise unavailable.
At the Maritime Engineering Courses, students learn to prevent fatalities from issues like loose wires, focusing on Electrical Engineering and safety. Key topics include circuit integrity, fail-safes, insulation, and maintenance of high-risk systems, as well as inspection protocols and understanding electrical codes to prevent arcing, short circuits, blackouts, and electrocution.
Transportation in the Baltimore area has suffered greatly as a result of the collapse. Every day, over 34,000 vehicles—many of them large trucks—use the Key Bridge. Since then, traffic has been rerouted around and through the Port of Baltimore, lengthening travel times and causing congestion.
Additionally, the bridge was the primary route for vehicles transporting hazardous goods, which now have to take lengthier detours because they were not allowed to use the city's underwater tunnels.
Investigators concluded that a loose signal wire connection resulting in a loss of electrical power was likely the cause of the incident.
Likewise, the report identified that a connection issue, stemming from inadequate installation of wire-label banding, led to incomplete insertion of a wire into a terminal block, directly causing a blackout that resulted in the ship losing steering and propulsion.
The crew's ability to recover propulsion was hindered by the vessel's proximity to the bridge during the power failure, resulting in inadequate time to regain control.
The final report indicates that the bridge collapse and loss of life were exacerbated by a lack of protective measures to mitigate collapse risk after a vessel impact. Furthermore, the report discovered that a contributing factor in the number of fatalities was the absence of efficient and prompt communication to notify highway workers to evacuate the bridge.
Indeed, the investigation led to the issuance of several safety recommendations, four of which were time-critical. Federal agencies were urged to assemble an interdisciplinary team, involving the Federal Highway Administration, the US Coast Guard, and the US Army Corps of Engineers, to assist bridge owners in evaluating and mitigating the risk of vessel-related bridge collapses.
In the final form, bridge authorities in the U.S. are required to assess the annual collapse probability of certain bridges using the AASHTO Method II and report any risks that surpass defined thresholds. They must also create and execute detailed risk-reduction strategies, both short- and long-term.
