No fuel problems were found in the investigation into the container ship collision that destroyed Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, the head of the agency probing the incident said.

National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told the US Congress that an independent lab tested all fuel on the 9,962-teu Dali (built 2015), including the marine gasoil that was in use at the time that the ship hit the bridge.

Baltimore bridge probe reports blackouts minutes before tragedy
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“The test results did not identify any concerns related to the quality of the fuel,” Homendy said.

The vessel had been using the same marine gasoil since 21 March, she said in testimony a day after the NTSB issued its preliminary report on the incident.

The NTSB’s preliminary report found the Dali suffered four power outages — two on 26 March as the ship was departing Baltimore, and two the day before.

Homendy said the 25 March blackouts were “mechanically distinct” from those that occurred on the day of the incident.

While the ship was in port, a crew member mistakenly closed an engine damper, causing a blackout. After power was briefly restored, insufficient fuel pressure resulted in a second blackout.

After this, the crew switched to a different transformer and set of breakers than those used for months, Homendy said.

“Switching breakers is not unusual but may have affected operations the very next day on the accident voyage,” she said. “The configuration of the breakers remains under investigation.”

Homendy said that the next day a high-voltage and a low-voltage breaker powering most of the Dali’s equipment and lighting unexpectedly tripped while the ship was less than 1 km from the bridge, causing it to lose power to main propulsion and bridge equipment. The feed to the voyage data recorder was also severed.

The crew was able to restore power, and then another breaker tripped just over 300 metres from the bridge. She said the vessel regained electric power right before the collision that killed six people, but not propulsion.

“Going forward, this is a complex investigation,” Homendy said.

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