It’s apparent that if you watch the video that the ship made a pretty damned dramatic hard turn to hit that support. Why? I’m not saying it was on purpose or terrorism, but why? I mean if the ship was in the channel as alleged and from all the videos and diagrams I’ve seen it looks like once you are in the channel it’s a straight shot out. So, if you’re going straight in the channel and the power goes out, you’re likely to coast through and under the bridge if you do nothing. Presumably, the current in that spot is running out with the river, so it shouldn’t have caused that hard turn.
So for me, I would like to know why the hard turn? Because, it’s there if you watch.
Because when you go full astern on power with a single screw vessel - there's no steering but the prop walks the stern to port. Physics. Pilot/helm panicked, went full aft to avoid what they saw was coming and made it worse. Drift forward then into the support.
That's per a Navy helmsman and other sea guys I talked to yesterday.
Okay, maybe. But what did he see coming and why did he panic? I mean they hit that pillar square in the middle of the bow. That means that if they had done nothing they would have slid right under that bridge.
I mean the pilots are all professionals who have made this run thousands of times most likely right? They are the best trained people on earth with regard to this sort of thing and know that port and harbor better than you know your living room, right? I’m not saying it’s not an accident, but I would like to hear from the pilot in charge what happened and why, if he panicked, he did so in a way to make sure the damage was the absolute worst it could be.
Apparently, Baltimore is a uniquely important port with regard to bulk and industrial shipping on the east coast.
And by the way, if port is left and starboard is right, then thatvbow went to the starboard side as giewed from the perspective of the pilot.
