The shipping container that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, USA, forcing it to collapse into the water, passed two safety inspections in 2023, authorities have said.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore has this morning (Wednesday) confirmed the Dali, a Singaporean flagged vessel, passed safety checks on both the structural integrity of vessell and the equipment on board.
A spokesman told the AFP news agency: “The vessel’s required classification society and statutory certificates covering the structural integrity of the vessel and functionality of the vessel’s equipment, were valid at the time of the incident.”
It comes after Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath of the U.S. Coast Guard tonight confirmed six construction workers who were filling potholes on the bridge are presumed dead.
It is understood the pilot of Dali tried to slow down the vessel when it first went off course at around 1.30am.
The ship is said to have lost power, including to the engines, before the pilot ordered the rudder hard to port in an effort to stop it turning right.
Clay Diamond, executive director of the American Pilots’ Association, told Associated Press they tried to contact the bridge to close it down and that the ship regained power due to an emergency generator firing up moments before impact.
The emergency generators turned the lights back on – as seen in video circulating online – but not the ship’s propulsion.
A foreign-flagged ship entering U.S. waters must have a “highly trained” state-licensed pilot on board.
Pilots board the ships before they enter the local waterways and take “navigational control,” meaning they give orders for the ship’s speed and direction.
Interstate 695, a 51-mile highway, runs along the bridge and five vehicles are also believed to have fallen into the water as a result of the smash.
