Key Bridge Collapse: The Dali Blackout, a Flushing Pump, and 90 Seconds

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

On March 26, 2024 the 980 foot, Singapore flagged container ship Dali left the Port of Baltimore at 12:44 a.m. with two harbor pilots aboard. At 1:24 a.m., moving at nearly nine knots in the Fort McHenry channel, it blacked out, losing steering, cooling, bow thrusters, and fuel pumps. An electrician restored low voltage power and an emergency generator returned some steering, but the flushing pump that pressurizes fuel for the main engine had tripped off and needed a manual reset, so the engine never restarted. The crew dropped the port anchor at 1:27 a.m. and the pilot radioed a mayday. Maryland Transportation Authority police stopped traffic at both ends of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in about 90 seconds. At 1:28:45 a.m. the ship hit the southwest pier with an estimated 27 to 52 million pounds of force, and the fracture critical 1977 steel truss bridge fell, killing six of eight maintenance workers who were patching potholes.

The bridge was designed when ships carried two or three thousand containers; the Dali could carry 10,000 and had 4,700 aboard. Baltimore deepened its harbor and added cranes after the 2016 Panama Canal expansion, but the bridge had no protective dolphins because 1990s rules grandfathered it in. The port, the top US port for cars and light trucks for 13 straight years, closed for 11 weeks at a cost of about $15 million a day. The Dali's 21 crew, mostly from India and Sri Lanka, were stuck aboard for months with expired visas and phones seized by the FBI. Owners Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine Group settled with the Justice Department for $102 million and invoked an 1851 law to seek a $43 million liability cap.

• The six workers who died came from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
• The bridge carried about 34,000 vehicles a day.
• The FBI opened an inquiry under the Seaman's Manslaughter statute, a steamboat era law.
• Replacement estimates rose from $1.7 to $1.9 billion to between $4.3 and $5.2 billion, with completion planned by late 2030.
• Online commentators baselessly blamed DEI, targeting Mayor Brandon Scott and the ship's crew.