A minute later, the ship’s pilot made a distress call, requesting assistance from a tug boat. A dispatcher at the pilot’s association – the body that oversees ships traversing the river into the Port of Baltimore – contacted the state transportation authority to warn that the Dali was in distress.
That call has been credited by authorities with saving countless lives, as state officials closed the road across the bridge in both directions before the collision took place.
Twenty seconds later, at 1.27am, the pilot gave the order to drop the ship’s anchor and commanded the navigator to steer away from the bridge. However, the Dali lost power again, making it impossible to avoid the collision, the data suggest.
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