A tiny, misplaced label on the ship that hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in 2024 may have caused the catastrophic crash that killed six people, U.S. officials revealed on Tuesday.
The Dali hit the bridge after a series of electrical blackouts and system failures that led to loss of propulsion and steering control in the early hours of March 26, 2024. The strike caused the structure to collapse into the water below.
Investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have reported that a small label wrapped around a critical wire that was plugged into one of the many terminal boxes on the cargo ship had, over the course of years, caused the wire to come loose, tripping a breaker and causing the initial power outage on the ship.
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“This tragedy should have never occurred,” said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, said at a board meeting on Tuesday, according to the New York Times.
The report also found that the Dali’s crew had responded appropriately to the emergency. Because of the ship’s size and uncontrollable drifting, however, the crew’s actions to try to prevent the crash were ultimately futile.
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