Baltimore Bridge Collapse: Investigators Find Loose Electrical Cable on Ship

In an aerial view, salvage crews continue to remove wreckage from the cargo ship Dali after it stuck and collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the Baltimore Harbor, Md., on April 9, 2024. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Investigators have found a loose cable that may have caused electrical issues on the Dali cargo ship, which lost power and veered into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, causing the bridge to collapse.

When disconnected, the cable triggered an electrical blackout on the 984-foot-long, 95,000-ton vessel, according to new documents released on Sept. 11 by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The NTSB did not include any analysis or conclusions in the new documents.

Those will likely be released at a later date in the board’s final report on the incident.

According to federal safety officials, the Singapore-flagged Dali left Seagirt Marine Terminal in the Port of Baltimore at 12.39 a.m. local time on March 26—the day of the crash—and was en route to Sri Lanka.

Shortly after, the ship crashed into one of the supporting columns of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six construction workers who were filling potholes on the bridge at the time.

Speaking during a press conference in the days after the incident, safety officials with the NTSB said the pilot of the cargo ship had radioed for help from nearby tugboats moments before the crash and reported a power loss.

A report released by the NTSB in May narrowed down the cause of the crash to tripped electrical breakers.

According to the report, the Dali first experienced a power outage while still docked in Baltimore, when a crew member mistakenly closed an engine exhaust damper for one of the cargo ship’s four diesel generators, which led to clogged exhaust gases, causing the engine to stall and the generators to stop working.

Those electrical failures forced the crew to “adjust the configuration of the electrical system” roughly 10 hours before departing the harbor, with crews switching from one transformer and breaker system, which had been in use for several months, to a second system that was active upon departure, the NTSB said.

That second transformer and breaker system is where investigators found the loose cable, according to investigative reports.

“During the accident voyage, electrical breakers HR1 and LR1 unexpectedly opened when the vessel was three ship lengths from the Key Bridge, causing the first blackout (loss of electrical power) to all shipboard lighting and most equipment,” the NTSB said.

In June, the Port of Baltimore fully reopened following an extensive cleanup operation in which crews from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the U.S. Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving removed 50,000 tons of steel and concrete from the riverbed.

That same month, President Joe Biden requested $4 billion in emergency funding from Congress to help rebuild the bridge and support tornado and wildfire recovery efforts nationwide.

Crews conduct a controlled demolition of a section of the Francis Scott Key Bridge resting on the Dali container ship in Baltimore, Md., on May 13, 2024. Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

The Epoch Times has contacted an NTSB spokesperson for further comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.