The preliminary NTSB report on the DALI ship accident is out. Here is the timeline of events

I’m making a little post because the bot asked me to.

It came out NTSB preliminary report (pdf who) which, although it doesn’t get to the causes of the accident, provides clarity on how things happened.

Disclaimer for grammar nazis: there will be some English and Englishisms. If you want the bran academy post goodbye.

Disclaimer for those who know about ships: I like post-mortem analyzes of accidents, but I’m not an expert on ships/boats/stuff floats, so I’m definitely using the wrong terms.

Let’s get straight to the point: the timeline from 1pm onwards was as follows (time format HHMM)

• 0107 – tugboats are relieved of their duties (normal practice)
• 0109 – the order is given to go to SLOW speed (35 rpm – approximately 10 knots – normal practice)
• Approximately 0125 – just three ships away from the bridge (0.6 miles) two circuit breakers (HR1 and LR1) come off, bringing power to almost the entire ship. Most of the bridge instruments shut down. The main engine oil and water pumps are electric and shut off. The ship’s main engine shuts down because it goes into protection without water and oil pressure
• 0126:02 – power returns to the bridge because the emergency generator starts (which takes about 20 seconds longer than normal to start, but it won’t matter)
• 0126:13 – the captain regains control of the ship from"apprentice" who commanded it before
• Shortly thereafter the crew identified the problem and reattached the HR1 and LR1 circuit breakers
• 0126:39 – the captain asks the port for help from the tugboats
• 0127:01 – the captain orders to drop anchor
• we are 0.2 miles away from the bridge (one boat away) HR1 and LR1 come apart again
• 0127:23 – the captain orders to steer 35°. Since the circuit breakers are still disconnected at that moment, the hydraulic pumps that control the rudder do not work "on foot" rather they work in mode "level" via the emergency generator power. But even if they had worked fully, with the engine stopped it would not have been enough
• 0127:25 – one of the pilots makes an emergency call to alert all marine traffic
• 0127:32 – the OTHER circuit breakers (HR2 and LR2) are closed, the ship now has power, but the main engine takes a while to start and is still not working
• 0127:53 – the bridge is closed to traffic, only the team of workers who are carrying out maintenance on it remain
• 0129:10 – the ship hits pillar number 17 of the bridge, causing it to collapse

Although the causes of the disconnection of those two circuit breakers are still to be defined (chance? negligence? bad maintenance?) it would seem that the crew did a good job: despite the pressure of having a boat that weighs as much as a city drifting towards a bridge traffic the problem was identified in one minute, the workaround (the use of the other two circuit breakers) in just another minute and the captain asked for the bridge to be closed just two minutes after the first blackout.

I repeat, I don’t know a thing about boats or ships and the procedures in the sector, but response times seem more than normal to me. It took them less than me getting up from the couch to go to the electrical panel even though they were slightly under pressure, so hats off I’d say.

For the nerds: there is one in the report outline diagram of the ship’s electrical system and a series of photos of the panels and engine.

The report is just a few pages long, it is written and read well, I recommend anyone who wants to learn more to read it.

In short, for now it seems that it was really bad luck and not negligence. At least not the crew during the event. What do you think?

Icing on the cake: just yesterday they moved the ship bringing it to the port to finally be able to download it.