Francis Scott Key bridge is no more - video

[Coal Dragger]

As a retired Unlimited HP Chief Engineer (Marine Engineer) my guess is she had switchboard issues.

The ship is 9 years old, she should have load shedding built into the switchboard, which means if one generator goes down non-critical electrical systems (lighting, HVAC) lose power in order to keep critical systems (steering and propulsion) in operation.
There should have been a minimum of two generators in operation while departing port. There is also an emergency generator that should have started up and taken the load for critical systems. It may be when the lights came back on it was the emergency generator providing power.

If the ship was having switchboard issues it may have then dumped the emergency generator.

Do you think they tried to back down into the river current too? Assuming that is a single screw vessel probably didn’t help with steerage at all.

I wonder if they dropped their anchors?

[Artos]

Logan isn't convinced.

https://twitter.com/laralogan/status...75651599770093

I like the gal...she'll usually stay on a story if she's interested. Several others were commenting on cyber attacks before her post.

[Coal Dragger]

She’s a moron.

[Artos]

She is actually one of the best investigative journalists on the planet...certainly cannot be labeled unintelligent.

[Coal Dragger]

In this case she’s an uninformed dumb bitch.

[AKjeff]

Do you think they tried to back down into the river current too? Assuming that is a single screw vessel probably didn’t help with steerage at all.

I wonder if they dropped their anchors?

In this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZbUXewlQDk, the presenter said it looked to him like they tried to back it down, and the port anchor had been dropped.
By reversing the screw it skewed the ship a bit more to starboard.

I think it was one of those spur of the moment decisions that could have gone either way. If, instead of backing down they had continued ahead, they would have had maintained water flow across the rudder and maybe missed the bridge stanchion.

[graffex]

Definitely wild. I live in Pasadena about 2 miles from the bridge. If I wasn’t zonked out on meds I’m sure I would have heard the collapse. I just drove over it last Wednesday, never would have imagined in less then a week it would be gone. It’s an absolutely miracle it occurred when it did otherwise lives lost would be counted in the hundreds.

[AKDoug]

Definitely wild. I live in Pasadena about 2 miles from the bridge. If I wasn’t zonked out on meds I’m sure I would have heard the collapse. I just drove over it last Wednesday, never would have imagined in less then a week it would be gone. It’s an absolutely miracle it occurred when it did otherwise lives lost would be counted in the hundreds.

Another count against it being on purpose is that someone on the crew issued a "mayday" and the port police stopped traffic on the bridge just in time. It's really too bad those DOT construction guys didn't stand a chance.

[thepatriot2705]

Another count against it being on purpose is that someone on the crew issued a "mayday" and the port police stopped traffic on the bridge just in time. It's really too bad those DOT construction guys didn't stand a chance.

Don’t think the crew was involved. My money is on a cyberattack.

[Coal Dragger]

You’ll lose your money making dumb shit bets like that.

My vote is mechanical failure or electrical bus failure.

Cause: lack of maintenance, or improper maintenance.

I’ll bet the Coast Guard is fixing to find a metric shit load of violations on board.