To add to the previous post, I found a great comment in this Youtube video:
At the end of the day from what I see, they lost power at the worst possible time. when it happened odds are the engine room crew didn't know exactly where the Dali was in relation to the bridge and the approaching danger, but I assure you the phone rang down there and they were told. It looks like they lost power somehow, either the generator shut down for some reason or it was an overload trip. Often on ships like this if they have a lot of refrigerated containers plugged in, they will have 2 generators running in parallel to supply enough power. These refrigerated containers always require a lot of electricity when first leaving the dock since while on the dock they were often left unplugged for a while; so they're all working to stabilize the temperature in them. If that parallel generator tripped out for some reason, then the other generator would have also tripped off from overload. On these big ships, vital things on the main engine are ran with electric motors, not driven by the main engine itself like a highway truck. So losing power would also drop out the lube oil pump, and water pumps which then would have triggered a main engine shut down so the oil pressure accumulator can provide oil to the engine while it is slowing down. As your video points out, re-starting this main engine is not like hoping into your Ford F-150 and turning the key.
From watching the dock camera in real time it looks to me that the engine room crew was all over this in as quick of a manner as they could. Once power came back up from the emergency generator or a main generator, they started the main engine start process, and it looks like something then tripped it out again. But once they got the main generator started and isolated to provide power to the ship only, they got the main engine started and the black smoke you see was the bridge pouring on the power in reverse to try and stop the ship. At this speed and slower, especially in the reverse direction, the rudder does not respond that well since less water is moving over it than out on the open ocean at 18 knots. All this time, the ship was moving. It did slow quite a bit, but not enough.... Kablamo! Very sad deal.
I give aplomb for the bridge getting that MayDay call off so they could close the bridge to traffic. Even at 1:30 AM, that bridge is well traveled. While some were unfortunate, that MayDay call probable saved a lot of lives.
I am glad that you find my post amusing. I do object to your insinuation that I am either downplaying or am ignorant to the fact that the transportation sector is a large target of attack. That angle is beneath you. I do not discount the security risks of cyber attacks obviously, and your long post outlines those risks well.
Having said that:
- The ship had routine maintenance before leaving port.
- The power went out twice leaving the ship without ability to use its rudder. It was most likely locked in its last position prior to losing power.
- The port anchor went into the water to try to slow down/offset the current heading.
There are concerns that 1) the ship might have had prior equipment problems and 2) there might have been contaminated fuel loaded into the tank before heading off. #1 might explain why there was maintenance before the voyage. #2 might explain why the power went out. Heck it could have been both #1 and #2.
Cyber attacks are generally aimed at either gathering information or directly controlling/damaging software or hardware. There was no direct control here. It was a power outage with a human response. The sheer absurdity thinking someone would have the knowledge beforehand of the precise steering conditions of the channel, the precise timing of causing a blackout that would yield the desired result, the precise knowledge of the position of the rudder before the power cuts, and the knowledge/timing of the human response due to the power being cut is what I find amusing.
What are the odds of that all panning out perfectly?
If it was an attack whereby all of that knowledge was known beforehand, why not go all out and kill a lot of Americans by doing it during rush hour with another ship?
What do you think is more likely? Hardware malfunction and terrible timing or Mission Impossible?
Finally, there's this fun fact: The Dali was previously involved in a minor incident when it hit a quay at the Port of Antwerp in Belgium in 2016, where it was damaged, according to Vessel Finder and maritime accident site Shipwrecklog.
32 currently and it just started snowing 10~15 minutes ago! Hopefully there's some decent accumulation when I wake up, but I'm sure there won't be. Just a trace currently which is not sticking to concrete yet..
14 day looking fairly solid; some rain, some sun and basically climo-ish temps. Thunderstorms and hail yesterday were pretty sweet, maybe we can get a couple more in April.
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