Ship hit the span

This link isn't going to last more than 12 hours before no longer going back far enough, and I'm not tech savvy enough to preserve it, but this is the live feed, with saved feed for the past 24 hours. Back up the feed, using the time displayed at the top, to just before 01:29...as the ship approaches, all the ship's lights go out, then after a time, come back on, before it hits the bridge. I'm wondering if they had some sort of engine failure or system failure that would cause the problem.

 
Someone has already cut that. I've seen it on Xitter and the TV news websites.

Strange that there appears to be stopped emergency vehicles on the bridge (just right of center) before the ship even enters the picture.

The lights go off twice on the ship. If you back it up until it just enters the scene from the left, just after it is fully in view, the lights go off for an extended period and then come back on and then go off again as it approaches the bridge.
 
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flyingron said:
Strange that there appears to be stopped emergency vehicles on the bridge (just right of center) before the ship even enters the picture.
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They were doing road construction at the time.
 
flyingron said:
Someone has already cut that. I've seen it on Xitter and the TV news websites.

Strange that there appears to be stopped emergency vehicles on the bridge (just right of center) before the ship even enters the picture.

The lights go off twice on the ship. If you back it up until it just enters the scene from the left, just after it is fully in view, the lights go off for an extended period and then come back on and then go off again as it approaches the bridge.
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Reporting is that construction crews were on the bridge pouring concrete for deck maintenance.
 
Chip Sylverne said:
Reporting is that construction crews were on the bridge pouring concrete for deck maintenance.
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That bridge is only one lane in each direction. It looks like they might have been doing single direction operations earlier in the video. But traffic was going both ways at the time of the crash, so they may have been wrapping up.
 
flyingron said:
That bridge is only one lane in each direction. It looks like they might have been doing single direction operations earlier in the video. But traffic was going both ways at the time of the crash, so they may have been wrapping up.
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Hmmm, street view shows 2 lanes in each direction.bridge.jpg
 
RyanShort1 said:
There will definitely be conspiracy theories about the ship.
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As is the normal course of business on social media these days.
This situation is craziness. I've driven across that bridge many, many times. It's the Beltway around Baltimore, so this is incredibly impactful, not to mention that this is the waterway into the Baltimore ports. Who knows how long maritime traffic into the city will be shut down.
 
I suspect clearing the channel will be easier than putting 695 back together. At least it's harder to hit the Baltimore Harbor or Ft. McHenry Tunnels.

Odd they hit that side of the bridge. There's a dogleg in the just north of the bridge. If you miss the turn you'll hit the east side (right in the video).
 
I also noted that there seemed to be a lot of black smoke from the stacks after the ship’s lights came back on. If I were guessing, I’d guess they lost navigational control during a power outage and were trying to correct course when they got it back. But that would be a total guess from someone who knows next to nothing about big ships. It’s hard to imagine what could cause a total outage like that.
 
What surprised me was how that single point of impact brought the whole span down like a house of cards. Maybe I’m naive, but I would have assumed some level of redundancy if one support was compromised.
 
FastEddieB said:
What surprised me was how that single point of impact brought the whole span down like a house of cards. Maybe I’m naive, but I would have assumed some level of redundancy if one support was compromised.
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Many bridge designs are actually a bit delicate even though there are large safety factors applied to load paths. Once a support is displaced, the load path changes and it buckles. It can quickly become a house of cards.

Kipling has been running through my head all morning:
So, when the buckled girder​
Lets down the grinding span, ​
The blame of loss, or murder, ​
Is laid upon the man. ​
Not on the Stuff — the Man!​
 
And engineering for multiple failure points would add enormously to the cost, weight and time to construct.

Anf for a little aviation content, this is also true of our spam cans-specifically- the skin is a load bearing portion of the structure. A little dent can be catastrophic.
 
Anf for a little aviation content, this is also true of our spam cans-specifically- the skin is a load bearing portion of the structure. A little dent can be catastrophic.
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:yeahthat:

Ever do the stunt where you balance on one foot on an aluminum beverage can, then barely touch it on two sides? The can crumples instantly.
 
speed was climbing until that waypoint(red on picture) then off-course. But apparently still managed to slow down quite a bit.

This is going to affect my commute.
 
Wow. The perspective in the video made it look like they were coming out of the channel that branches over into Curtis Bay. Your plot makes it look like they came straight down the main channel.
 
flyingron said:
Wow. The perspective in the video made it look like they were coming out of the channel that branches over into Curtis Bay. Your plot makes it look like they came straight down the main channel.
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Right, I thought it came out of Curtis Bay as well. But the tracking showing it coming out of Dundalk. Camera angles I guess.
 
genna said:
Right, I thought it came out of Curtis Bay as well. But the tracking showing it coming out of Dundalk. Camera angles I guess.
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The perspective from the camera would show a left-to-right bearing drift for any vessel coming out of the main channel there. AIS track shows the ship departed from a pier very close to and just north of the bridge. It is labeled "Point Breeze" on most maps and is just before you reach the I-895 tunnel.
 
A good rundown here, by a guy who knows shipping:

 
Another analysis in this video.

 
I saw this on the news at the gym this morning. By noon the sh***house experts started posting their analyses on Youtube.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I saw this on the news at the gym this morning. By noon the sh***house experts started posting their analyses on Youtube.
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You thought aviation utoobers were unique in that aspect?
 
TCABM said:
You thought aviation utoobers were unique in that aspect?
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Oh not at all. They are present in every aspect of life. Someone has to grab a little bit of glory, and get noticed. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but... are we interested in their opinion or not? The people with creds and experience yes, otherwise, you move to the back of the line.
 
Henning, ya checked out a little too soon...
 
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