In March 2024, a nearly 1,000-foot-long container ship lost power and crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing the structure to collapse. Six highway workers were killed in the accident and estimates for replacing the bridge are as high as $5.2 billion.
And now it looks like the whole tragic accident was caused by a single loose wire.
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After earlier reports pointing toward electrical issues, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) this week confirmed that the faulty wiring was to blame for the Dali losing power and drifting into the bridge. Investigators found that wire-label banding, which wraps around the wire’s protective coating, was incorrectly placed. This prevented the wire from being fully inserted into a terminal block spring-clamp gate, thereby resulting in an inadequate connection.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy described the investigation results as a very needle-in-a-haystack type of discovery. She said, ”Our investigators routinely accomplish the impossible, and this investigation is no different. The Dali, at almost 1,000 feet, is as long as the Eiffel Tower is high, with miles of wiring and thousands of electrical connections. Finding this single wire was like hunting for a loose rivet on the Eiffel Tower.”
The NTSB credited the Dali’s crew, shoreside dispatchers and the Maryland Transportation Authority with helping to stop traffic and prevent further loss of life or injury. But the agency warned that as ocean-going vessels continue to grow in size, bridges across the country must develop plans for mitigating collapse risks due to collisions.
In the aftermath, Baltimore is still dealing with traffic, supply chain and logistics issues that arose after the Key Bridge collapsed. And the city will be dealing with those problems for a while, since the new bridge isn’t projected to open to traffic until late 2030.
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